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.

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.

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.

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.
Condé 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 – fashion 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.