Friday 1 March 2013

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?


Firstly, when creating my preliminary task of a school magazine, I used Adobe Photoshop,  CS5. Although Photoshop can produce a professional looking magazine, I feel that InDesign allows you to give the magazine more of a standard structure that all magazine have. Also I had rather limited Photoshop knowledge and therefore struggled to make my magazine look as professional as possible.
My prelimiary task looks rather unprofessional for several reasons. One of these is the lack of power that the masthead shows. The name ‘Haydon Magazine’ lacks any creativity or appeal to my target audience of schoolkids, and the style of it doesn’t help this problem. The font I’ve used is bland and very standard, whilst the colour blends in with the outfit of the model on the cover photo. The colour scheme chosen is boring and the use of more than one photo featuring on the cover looks unprofessional and confusing. When taking photos for my preliminary task, I did not take into consideration the type of photos I wanted, or the type of models I wanted, to fit my magazine style. This made it difficult to make the images fit in with the magazine, and to think of magazine articles that could relate to them. As well as being unplanned, the photos I took were in boring, everyday settings that make the photos look very unprepared and unappealing. However when creating my final product I put much thought into the photos I wanted before carrying out a photoshoot, and I was so particular about it that I even did it twice, to fit my magazine genre.
The front cover holds no key information, for example price or website, or even a barcode. The text is difficult to read on the left hand side as the text colour barely differs from the background. There are merely three sell lines on th e front cover, meaning the magazine as a whole lacks value and will not appeal to readers. The contents page also only displays ten stories that are featured inside the magazine - this is very unprofessional. The background to the contents page is completely irrelevant and it is clear that I didn’t think through the genre of my pictures before taking them. It is unlikely that anyone will buy a magazine that holds such little content, especially when the price isn’t even displayed. Again, the choice of font on this page is boring, unappealing and hard to read when up against such a busy background. The contents displays more of the background image than it does text, which is completely opposite to how a professional magazine should look. For my prelimiary task I carried out no research into my target audience and so it’s clear I was unsure of how to attract particular readers.
However, by looking at my final product, you can tell that elaborative research and planning has come before the making of the magazine, so I know that it will be suitable for my target audience and their preferences. It is clear what the main focus of the magazine is by the front cover, as the popstar’s name is large and stands out amongst the rest. The background image clearly applies to this, making it appealing to readers who are attracted by this singer. My colour scheme and choice of fonts is well thought-out so that it is both clear to read, and appealing to both sexes.

Friday 22 February 2013

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?


During the creation of my product I used a range of different technologies in order to produce a professional looking magazine rather than one that looks student-made. The first technology I used was In Design, which I was new to, to create a basic template of what my magazine would look like. After gathering ideas from several other music magazines I decided to go with three columns of writing per page on my double page spread. In Design made this decision an easy one for me to carry out, as they feature a tool which enables you to carry text on across columns. As my article was already written, this made it a quick and efficient start, as I simply copied and pasted the text in. I drew out boxes on my contents page, ready for text and images to be inserted later, and did the same on my front cover. I used the master page to create professional details such as the website URL featured at the bottom of every page. The master page allows you to add any text or images you would like to feature in the same place on every page, which makes the magazine overall look more professional as everything is in its place. I used the master page to also create a mini logo in the top corner of each page I created, as well as the date being featured at the bottom of each page, along with page numbers. Although when I started, I was not familiar with In Design, I feel that now I can navigate my way around it rather easily.
I carried out a photo shoot, using a Canon 55OD DSLR as I feel it is a camera I am most familiar with, from creating previous work, and I am able to comfortably use and experiment with it. The fact this camera is digital is another helpful factor as I was able to take hundreds of photos and also check over them, deleting those I did not feel content with. I used this camera when taking photos of my model against a white back drop, lit by interfit portrait photography lighting, in order to create the right amount of light for my photographs to appear professional. Also, I used trigger lighting, meaning that the bright lights were in sync with the camera, so when I pressed the capture button to take a photo, the lights flashed in just enough time. I was then able to transfer the photos from the camera to my computer by inserting the memory card into a USB, which allowed me to save them onto my computer very quickly. Whilst doing my photoshoot, I asked a friend to also use a Canon camera behind me, to take shots of me and my model in action. This works as evidence as it proves that all photos in my magazine were taken by me only.
After taking a range of photos I then edited them, so they were appropriate for use in my magazine. To remove the background from the photos, I used the colour range tool in Photoshop, which I feel I am rather experienced with as I’ve used this tool several times before in previous coursework. After doing so, I adjusted lighting levels on the photos so that they were either brighter or darker, depending on my preference which varied from photo to photo.
I have also used other forms of technologies to construct my product, mainly the internet, by making use  of many sites available to me. Blogger, however, has been one of the largest contributors to the production of my magazine as it allowed me to document every stage of the production process and also let me constantly update my ideas, in my draft posts, before publishing them. Survey Monkey allowed me to create surveys to hand out to my target audience in order to gain information on what they would enjoy reading in my magazine, whilst Google supplied me with images and information about previous music magazines and their distributors. Google has also allowed me to collect images that inspired my photo shoot, or magazine in general, and post these to my blog in the form of a mood board.

Friday 15 February 2013

How did you attract/address your audience?


I closely looked at music magazines similar to my own product such as Q magazine, and decided that my target audience would be intrigued to read about fun and interesting musicians. I found that my target audience like artists such as Jessie J, Olly Murs etc and in fact idolize these people, as pop fans do. Music artists like this give off a positive outlook on life and influence their fans to have the same. In photo shoots, interviews etc music artists such as these are chatty and enthusiastic and aren’t often slated in magazines/newspapers.
                I wanted to make my magazine appeal to the same audience as these magazines; because of this is chose to use a cover model that is young and attractive. Her long blonde hair is idealistic to many women and her make-up stands out due to the use of bright red lipstick, matching other elements of her outfit such as her shoes and belt, to hold the reader’s attention to her. The use of this model will instantly appeal to my target audience as the clothing she wears isn’t too over the top, and so readers may see her outfit and consider it affordable and realistic for them to buy themselves. The bright parts to her outfit help to highlight elements of her personality which readers will enjoy, so they know the article about her will be fun and positive.
                I have tried to make my magazine appeal to an audience who listen to pop music. I did this by using colours such as teal and purple as a general house style as I found that these colours compliment each other well and are different to typical music magazines that already exist. Although most successful music magazines use colours such as red and black, I wanted to breach out of this norm to make my product stand out amongst the rest and make it more appealing, as readers may be used to seeing red and black and may therefore be bored of it. Also, my target audience of pop music listeners enjoy bright attractive colours rather than a dark and mysterious theme, so I think it fits my aims well.
                The article headline “Stand Up for Scarlett Moss” connotes a festival or gig, which relates to my target audience as they are typically fun-loving festival-goers. This kind of headline will catch the eye of readers and, accompanied by powerful images, will influence them to read it. This type of language will stand out to them as they will have a sudden interest in who I am talking about. The general tone of my article is rather casual and chatty and I think this will help my target audience to feel more involved with the celebrity as though they have a connection to them. The information they read will feel personal to them, as the article feels like a friendly conversation, so this will build a personal identification with the singer. The audience will then feel that the information is exclusive, as if they are the only ones to know. I have found that pop fans enjoy relating to their idols and finding out things that they have in common, and my article will help them to do so.
The magazine has a female appeal, due to the typically girly colour scheme including purple, and the asthetically pleasing images and layouts. The images include an attractive girl wearing the latest fashions, which may attract females attention. On the other hand, my magazine may also appeal to males due to the use of a bold, firm font that is fluently used throughout the magazine, giving it a masculine feel. Also, the model I’ve used may appear attractive to males, so this may grab their attention.

Friday 8 February 2013

Who would be the audience for your media product?


The target audience for my music magazine will be teenagers to young adults of either gender, at the age of 15-25, under the social class BC1. I have chosen this age group as they are most likely to consume my magazine and enjoy it, to have an interest or knowledge of the urban artists I will feature. My magazine will stay up to date with recent releases of albums and festivals as well as current artists of a general pop genre, which I feel is most appealing to a younger generation.  The social class I have chosen is mainly due to the price, as I feel that this range of people will be willing to pay the money for my magazine at roughly three pounds and will not feel that it’s too much.  Also, certain events, for example gigs and festivals featured are at a high price that middle class teenagers are likely to be willing to purchase. Due to the genre of pop, my magazine will be aimed at females or males who enjoy music of this genre, or share an interest in it.
According to the uses and gratifications theory, there are four reasons that the public consume the media, and I believe these each apply to my media product. These are entertainment, information, personal relationships and identity. My target audience will read my magazine for entertainment as it will include news on the latest music and interviews with the most popular, current artists, which prove to be very interesting to a music enthusiast. The reader may feel they can identify themselves with particular artists for example by reading a very down to earth interview that reveals true personality about a singer or band – which my music magazine will include. Also the audience may feel important in finding out information before others on the music industry and then are able to share this information with those around them, forming personal relationships – if two people share a similar music taste, they can bond over the information a magazine gives.
Due to the proliferation of magazines, readers now have the option to buy a printed magazine to read, or to read the contents of the magazine on an online website, app for smart phones, or even to follow the magazine on Twitter and ‘like’ them on Facebook to hear about updates from the magazine. The benefits of reading from a website is that there are no limits – a website can store as much information as you want it to, where as there is only a limited amount of printing you can do of paper magazines. This way if readers have missed an issue of my magazine it does not mean that it is unavailable to them straight away – they could be months late and still find the issue posted online for their viewing. Also a website allows the magazine to carry out polls to hear feedback from the readers, e.g. Which artist would you most like to see in the next issue? Etc. The idea of a smart phone app for my magazine is so that readers don’t have to be at home on a PC or near a shop to read/purchase the magazine. It allows readers to see quick pieces of small interesting information as not to bore them, and they can do this on the go, wherever they may be.
The typical reader of my magazine would be a busy teenager to young adult who doesn’t have the time to read a whole magazine all at once. I feel that one of the advantages of my magazine is that information is less extensive than other music magazines in the market, it will be more split up into smaller sections on many levels – online, in print, via smart phone app etc. This will fit my target audience perfectly as it’s difficult for someone of this age to find the time to sit down and read a whole magazine. From my audience research I found that, from my sample of my target audience, the majority of people rarely read magazines.

Friday 8th February

Today I worked on the contents page of my magazine by adding captions to the photos, with a description of what the page contains and the page number, to make it look more professional. This also helps to break up the amount of text I have in chunks on my contents page, as this looks far too packed, and needs to be spread out more to make it easier on the reader's eye.

Friday 1 February 2013

What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?


Four main companies distribute magazines in the UK, and this is called the oligopoly. The oligopoly consists of IPC, Bauer, Condé Nast and National Magazine Company.
IPC is a very large publishing company that deals with magazines such as Look, Nuts, Woman’s Weekly, and also NME. Trying to convince IPC to publish my magazine, Z magazine, would prove to be a slight problem as they already have a very well known music magazine within their company that would be strong competition for mine, so it would be a great risk. Also IPC are likely to have almost no interest in Z magazine, as they already have a large success with NME.
Bauer Media Group owns many forms of media such as radio, TV channels, etc. and also magazines. Bauer publishes magazines such as Closer, FHM, Heat, Q and Kerrang! To attempt to get my Z magazine published by Bauer Media would be a great challenge as they already publish two other very popular music magazines. Although Kerrang! isn’t anything like my magazine, Q magazine is quite similar to mine in style and in genre, so my magazine is likely to fall under the radar of the general public, and especially of my target audience, as Bauer do not need another music magazine and therefore will not spend the necessary time on it.
Cond̩ Nast is an international publishing company, which publishes magazines such as GQ, Glamour, and Vogue. It is clear that this publishing company have more of a focus on fashion magazines rather than music magazines that would compete with my genre. However, this does not necessarily mean they are appropriate to publish Z magazine as they may be uninterested Рfashion is clearly their main focus and they are even praised on the contribution to fashion that they make, by publishing magazines such as Vogue. Furthermore, they are likely to decline my magazine as they already have huge successes in the fashion industry.
The National Magazine Company, or Hearst Magazines, also publishes many fashion related magazines or simply those that attract women, such as Elle, Company, Cosmopolitan etc. Hearst are yet to publish a music magazine and so I believe that this would be my best choice of publisher. Although they aren’t experienced in publishing music magazines, they have brilliant success with magazines such as Elle which are incredibly popular, and so Z magazine is likely to have more success. Also, as Hearst don’t publish a music magazine yet there will be less competition amongst the company, again giving my new magazine more chance to thrive. I think that Hearst could benefit from taking on my magazine within their company and publishing it in future as it broadens their range of magazines.

Model Release for Second Photoshoot


I asked my model for my second photo shoot to sign a model release, in order to give me full permission to use and edit the photos of her to a full extent. This way, I have full rights to the photos and therefore it is fair.

Production Log - 1st February

Today I worked on my front page, adjusting colours and moving things around in order to perfect it. Although I haven't got the photos I'd like to use yet, as my first photoshoot didn't turn out the way I wanted it to, I've placed an image in the middle of the page to give myself an idea of what the finished product would look like - with a large image featured in the background. I applied my new colour of my house style to the front page - making the quote of the featured artist more noticable, and so that each sell line is separated clearly.

Thursday 31 January 2013

Contact Sheet of Second Photoshoot


Here are all my photos taken on the second photo shoot with my model, Cassy, in a more compact form of a contact sheet.

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Second Photoshoot

I felt unsatisfied after carrying out my first photo shoot, and so I decided to do another one, where I had more time to get a wider range of different shots at interesting angles. In my second photo shoot I styled my model in a range of different outfits, from leggings and t-shirts, to skirts and dresses. This shows more variety of the pop star throughout the magazine, and I feel makes the photo shoot overall more professional and realistic.

Friday 25 January 2013

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


My magazine is aimed at pop fans, who enjoy a little bit of everything, and love to just have fun. After closely studying magazines similar to my own product, such as Q, I came to the conclusion that my target audience would have an interest in musical artists with characteristics such as being fun loving and carefree. For example, music artists I found my target audience to enjoy reading about were people like Katy Perry, Jessie J, Calvin Harris and Rihanna. This is due to their upbeat party music and colourful artist images.                 I wanted to make my magazine appeal to the same audience as these magazines; because of this is chose to use a cover model that is young and attractive. Her long blonde hair conotates her innocence whilst the action of the photo, pulling on her cross-ridden necklace, shows a more rebellious and daring side to the music artist. The minimalistic make-up on my model represents many pop/indie fans - not too out there, but certainly not plain. This cover image will instantly appeal to my target audience as her little black dress is glamorous yet looks affordable.
                I used colours such as teal and purple to keep the magazine eyecatching throughout - not just on the front cover. These bright colours reflect the personalities of pop stars and their fans. I included a pull quote in my article that mention X-Factor - a very popular TV programme amongst my target audience. X-Factor is known for producing some of the biggest pop stars, especially in the industry at the moment, such as Olly Murs. The second pull quote I’ve used is: “It’s not about the fame or the money, it’s about doing what I love most - making music”. My targeted social group will instantly feel they can relate to this quote, as pop fans enjoy an artist who is down to earth, and doesn’t show off about being famous. The large photo I’ve used on my first double page spread displays how spontaneous and fun this artist is, along with the fans that follow artists of this type.The general tone of my article is gossip-like and secretive. This helps to make my target audience feel the information they are reading is exclusive and makes them feel special as if they are the first to read it. This tone will also relate to my target audience as they will enjoy hearing gossip and secrets about inspiring music artists, forming a personal identification as they will aspire to be like them.
My cover model’s facial expressions are generally cheeky, as she will slightly smile whilst deeply gazing into the camera, or pull funny faces, looking imperfect, and therefore normal. This will satisfy my targeted social group as they will appreciate this relatable side to the artist, and is effective as the reader will be drawn to look at the page. This also creates a realistic appearance for my feature artist, helping to sell the article further as the target audience will feel curious about her and want to read on. Her body language is dominant and confident, with poses such as her hand on her hip (shown on the cover) and her range of cute and fun faces (shown on the first and second double page spreads). This will also appeal to my target audience as they will be able to form a personal relationship with the character, as my target audience will also be confident and able to ‘let their hair down’.

Production Log - 25th January

Last lesson I worked on the double page spread of my magazine, and decided to create a box of text separate from the actual article, which is still related to the topic of the artist and links in with the article. This helps to break the double page spread up so that it isn't all just a big chunk of text, and looks less daunting to the reader. Inside the box I included comments from twitter users that are fans of the featured artist, Scarlett's music, to make my target audience feel they can contribute to the magazine, too. Twitter is commonly used across my target audience and so I feel that this box will be appreciated by my target audience. The box keeps to the house style, and rather than being just a plain line I changed it to polka dots to make it more attractive to the reader's eye, and this also adds the glamorous celebrity effect as it almost mimics a celebrity's dressing room, with a mirror surrounded by circular lights.

Friday 18 January 2013

In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


The logo I’ve used in the top left corner of my magazine has clear similarities to the logo used for Q magazine, as the text is white on a bold coloured background and is boxed into the corner. The subheadings are each separated with lines in between to make it clear that each is featured in my magazine. The larger pieces of text, which are the names of music artists, are followed by a brief descriptive line underneath in smaller text to catch the eye of readers so that they can spot the artists that they’re interested in reading about or are fond of. The circle in the top corner is used in the same way as Q magazine does, as it highlights the text inside it as readers might find this factor attractive and would convince them to purchase the magazine. I decided to place a sell line for a freebie in the circle as professional magazines, especially for music, often give away free posters, CD samples, etc. for their readers. I featured a quote by the main focus of the magazine in the corner to give a preview of what the article will be like and influences readers to want to read more inside.
I’ve used the idea of ‘Inside this week’ from NME magazine as I found this title more interesting for a contents page than just ‘Contents’. I’ve made page numbers larger than all of the other text to make them stand out, and this makes the magazine easier to navigate around for the reader and they can easily find what they want to read quickly. To improve my contents page from my first draft, I added page numbers to the artist list so readers know where to go to read about the ones that interest them. I wrote catchy contents lines to attract the reader to visiting each page, like professional magazines do. However I may alter these in my next draft to have a title and description, like on the front page, as Q magazine does. I could break my contents up into sections e.g. ‘on the cover’ and ‘regulars’ to make my magazine even more similar to a professional one, and again making the magazine more accessible to readers as if something catches their eye on the front cover, they are then able to access this straight away from the contents page.
My first double page spread of my magazine is largely inspired by an NME article featuring Mike Skinner. I chose this article to go by when making my double page spread as I found, as a reader myself, that the headline is very eye catching and the large image covering the left page is striking towards the reader. The font used for the headline is simple yet bold, with the music artist’s name standing out more than anything else on the page, so it’s made incredibly obvious what the focus of the article is. I chose to fill one whole page with a photo as I feel my target audience will appreciate an image this large of the music artist if they are a big fan. As my magazine is aimed at teenage fans of pop music, readers may use this photo to stick up on their bedroom walls to idolize their favourite singers, as my target audience typically do. The pull quote is surrounded by two boldly coloured lines, fitting in with the house style, to emphasise the quote. Professional magazines do this in order to attract attention and also to break up the text, so it doesn’t just look like one big chunk of text. This is also why I’ve added a photo within the text, with text wrapped around it. Readers may notice the pull quote and base their decision on whether or not they shall read the article on this, so it’s vital to have bold clear pull quotes, in the recognisable house style.

Monday 14 January 2013

Production Log - Monday 14th January

I added a new colour to my house style as I felt that just the teal and grey was too boring, and not eye grabbing enough. Also, the majority of my audience feedback mentioned the fact that another colour could be added in to make the magazine more attractive, so I decided to act on this. I thought a purpley/burgundy colour would match well with the teal and wouldn't clash. I didn't want to use red as most music magazines do, because I think it's overused, and then my magazine would look too much like Q or NME.

Saturday 12 January 2013

Feedback On My Magazine Draft

I asked several people of my target audience to give me feedback on my first draft of my magazine..

I really like the colour scheme Faye has chosen and think the colours mix together very well. It will look even better once an image has been chosen for the front. The front cover layout is very stylish and attractive. All the sell lines are related to the genre of Faye’s magazine and interest her ideal target audience. By Faye keeping her contents quite simple it makes it look professional and not too busy. If I were to give any constructive criticism on her contents page I would say maybe use one more colour to make the artist names stand out more or put their page number in a bold colour. The double page spreads are well designed and will look even better once images are inserted. Overall i think that Faye has made an excellent start on her magazine but finding images to fit this design may be tricky!
I think the layout works well and looks professional, just like real magazines. However the colour scheme could be stronger, using colours like red or orange would make it stand out more and look even more like a real magazine.
I think that Faye’s magazine follows the conventions of a real magazine. He ongoing house colours of grey and teal-green work effectively as they contrast each other and aren’t the ‘normal’ colours you’d expect in a magazine therefore it would stand out compared to other magazines. On the front cover, the ‘Q’ logo would be easily recognisable and is similar to the typical layout of a real magazine. I like the idea of a double page contents with the different sections for each page as it creates easy navigation for the magazine so it’s easier for the reader – this is positive for the reader as it would attract them for this reason. If I were to give some constructive criticism I would try and use different images to give it a bit of variety so it is entertaining for a reader to look at.
I think throughout the magazine there is slightly too much grey used, and maybe another colour should be added to the house style. The teal on the contents page needs to be darker to stand out and so does ‘party’ as part of the quote on the front cover. The font of the quote on the front cover would look better and would make more sense if it switched to the other font used.