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

Since creating my college magazine, my knowledge of the media industry has increased. For example, I now know what sort of magazines certain groups of people would buy. I know what sort of images sell well and what people want to read about in magazines, for example, gossip is typically one of the mist popular things that my target audience would want to read about in a music magazine because they idolise famous artists, they want to know what they are doing and what sort of people they are so that they can try to be like them. I also know how to relate to my audience much better than I did when I was doing my preliminary task because I looked into what they found interesting. I did this by asking a typical 17 year old female what sort of things she would expect to find in a magazine.

I feel as if I have also learnt a lot more about the layout of my magazine. In my preliminary task, I had writing either side of the picture whereas on my music magazine cover, I chose to have the writing to the left hand side of the image because I think this looks more like a real magazine. I also asked my typical audience what they thought of the positioning of the writing compared to my college magazine and the responses were good, so I left the writing where it was. I think it makes the magazine look more mature and professional.

Since my preliminary task, I have also learnt that black is a good background colour to have, when creating my college magazine, I thought that if I used a black background, then my magazine would automatically be aimed at a certain group of people known as the 'emo' type but after looking through the pictures that I took for my cover and trying a few images with dark backgrounds, I realised that when mixed with the right colours, black doesn't look 'emo'. I think that it goes well when its behind my chosen colours, pink and white.

I have also learnt a lot in terms of manipulating images. I didn't use photoshop to edit any of my images but I have had to re-size them in order for them to fit on to my front cover properly. I learnt that some of the images wouldn't fit onto my front cover because when I tried to re-size them, they made my models face look either really long and strectched or fat. Because my front cover image takes up the whole page, I have manipulated it by putting writing across the top (title) and writing down the side and a bar code at the bottom. This is classed as manipulating because the image is no longer just of a person, its not an image of a magazine cover.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The typical audience for my media product would be young females ages 15 - 22. When I was prodicing my media product, my design and layout and contents of the magazine was aimed at young female adults because they are the most likely to be interested in R&B music. I took great care to insure that my magazine still appealed to my target audience everytime I changed it. I did this by printing off copies of the magazine and showing them to a typical 17 year old female, and asking for her opinion. Once I'd shown the magazine to her, I then asked if this would appeal to her if she saw it in a shop. The replies were usually 'YES!' They all liked the colours and the layout and they also loved the images that had been put on the cover and in the magazine, they said they looked professional but at the same time very casual and fun. This was good feedback for me as it meant I could keep the cover and inside roughly the same as I had planned. Being a young female myself, I was constantly asking myself when making the magazine if it appealed to me and the majority of the time, it did.

My typical audience is young females. They usually take great pride in what they look like, spend quite some time on hair and make up because it's important to them to look good all the time. The magazine appeals to this audience because the images that I have used for my product are of someone who is of that typical audience. They are usually found wearing very nice clothes, their hair has been done properly and their make up is perfect. My magazine appeals to them because they aspire to be like those famous R&B artists who look good all the time and live the life of a celebrity.



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

The computer that I used to produce the majority of my magazine was an intel computer. I used a memory stick to transfer work that I had done at college to home so that it could be finished and also so that I could put the images that I had taken onto the collge computers from my camera.

I learnt how to create a blog using 'Blogger.com' and how to edit and create new posts.

I also learnt how to use Microsoft publisher to create my double page spread because at first, it was two separate pages.

Overall, I have learnt how to do a few more things that I could before and can now use a few more programmes on the computer. I also used photoshop to edit some of the images but I could already use that before hand.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I addressed my target audience by constantly asking what their opinions were regarding my magazine throughout it's production. I showed them the drafts that I made, the pictures that I took and the different ideas for the name of my magazine. I think that because my magazine is aimed at that audience that their opinion matters and I valued it a lot when it came to making the final versions of my music magazine. I attracted them by putting someone roughly the same age as them on the cover in the hope that they would look upto her and want to be like her or become friends with her. When I asked them if she would be classed as an icon, the majority of them said she would because she's attractive, young and looks like she's someone you could have fun with.

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

I think that Intermedia Partners would be best to distribute my magazines because it already distributes 'Vibe' magazine which is aimed at a similar audience as my magazine. Vibe has a circulation of approximately 800,000. The fact that Intermedia partners already distributes well known music magazines, shows that they have experience and are good at selling products like my magazine.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

To the left is one of the pictures that I took and next to that is one of Jessie J, a famous R&B artist that I got from the internet. I've chosen to show both these images so that I can show how my magazine represents particular social groups.

The poses of both images are very similar. They both have their hands away from their sides, either on their hips or just behind their hips. Both females are wearing similar outfits, both black and tight fitting. Their hair is also very alike in the sense that they both have dark hair and fringes that cover their foreheads and finish just past their eyebrows. The backgrounds are also similar. The image that I took was in a bathroom and my artist was stood in the actual bath, whereas I'm not quite sure where the other picture was taken but, they both have tiles in the background and the lighting is slightly darker on one side in both images. Overall I think that these elements of the photos represent a normal young social group and that my magazine reflects this throughout – the person featured in my magazine looks normal but in a more interesting way compared to any other normal person which is why young females would aspire to be like my artists, so that they could stand out and be unique.



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

1- Mis-en-scene of images
I think the mis-en-scene of my images follow the codes and conventions of magazines. This is because I used different settings as backgrounds so all the images didn't look the same. they varied from a garage door, to outdoors in a field and just a room inside. I think these backgrounds fit in well with the genre of my magazine. In addition to this, the majority of my images follow the conventions of magazines by displaying the artist as happy, fun, sexy and interesting at the same time. I deliberately took the pictures so that they weren't all the same poses because I want them to all be unique.

2- Costumes and Props
The costumes and props used throughout “FRESH” are conventional. This is because the artist in my magazine wore outfits and make up that you would see in other magazines. All the outfits were fashionable and mostly black because it looked good against the white background of the garage door and the double page spread background as they are both plain white. There wasn't any props used in the pictures that I took because I didnt want them to be too busy and R&B artists aren't usually seen with guitars or instruments in their hands so it didn't seem appropriate for me to use those props. I took inspiration for the outfits from images that I found on the internet of people who are often shown in magazines. I sed Fearne Cotton as my main inspiration because she always looks really good, even when wearing simple attire like the picture below. I tried to match this look by asking my artist to wear just a denim shirt with a t shirt. This is a very simple look and the T-shirt that was worn had the words 'I <3 LONDON' written on it so it seemed appropriate because in my double page spread, it says I interviewed the artist when she was in London. 

3 – People
The artist featured in my magazine is quite unconventional. This is because she's quite young and not as extreme or obscure in her appearance as some artists featured in R&B magazines. Most R&B artists are male. There are quite a few females but the majority are male but because my target audience for my magazine is young females, I thought if I used a young female artist, this would appeal to them more. By featuring a girl as the main story and artist of my magazine, the audience will be able to relate and aspire to be like them; the target audience are more likely to be interested in a teenage artist than a middle-aged boring artist. However, I think the person I have used for my magazine bares some resemblance to Rihanna because of the matching hair styles but this proves that famous artists can have an impact on their audience in many ways so my artist will appeal to the target audience very well.

4- Written Content
The written content of my magazine follows the codes and conventions of a real music magazine by covering similar topics in the questions. For example, it asks about how they started off in the music industry, who their favourite artists are, their inspiration, their new songs and videos, what their new album is about, touring experiences etc. All of these topics could be found in a real music magazine aimed at teenagers and young adults. In addition to this, the standfirst follows conventions by introducing the artist at the start of the interview.

5 – Layout
The layout of my magazine is mainly conventional. This is highlighted on the double page spread which displays an interview in columns beneath a standfirst and title. In addition to this, the photos are arranged neatly with quotes dotted on the page. As well as this, my front cover follows layout conventions by having the masthead at the top of the page, a list of bands down the right-hand side and a main headline across the middle.

Finished Everything!

Final Cover!

I changed quite alot to make my final cover for my music magazine. I have edited the bar code at the bottom of the cover so that its not copyrighted and to make it my own. I edited numbers and letters so that it was unique. I decided to use one image for the whole of the cover as opposed to a two toned background gradient.

For the image on my cover, I was going to use a picture of my model face on but I decided that this image looked much more casual and fun so it was the best one for my magazie cover because I wanted it to be casual.


I am happy with my finished cover. I like the colours, the layout and the image.

Final Contents page!

For my final contents page, I changed the colour of some of the writing because you couldn't see it properly on the black backgroundand I think having some of the writing in white as well as black looks better anyway. I like the layout I've used, the way the images overlap looks good in my opinion. They give you an idea of what or who the magazine is mainly about.

I've made sure that the amount of pages in my magazine is divisible by four because they are double page spreads and double sided so the magazine will have to be divisible by four so it uncludes the front cover and the back as well.

I have also included fashion pages in my magazine because my typical audience is also interested in fashion and that would make them want to buy this magazine more.

Final Double Page Spread!

I had to add in a page number that matched the contents page so that it looked like a real magazine. I also moved some of the pictures slightly so that they were all in line with each other and the writing.

I think my double page spread looks very professional because of the colours and the layout. I'm very proud of my imges that I have taken, they haven't been edited at all and I still think they look amazing! I made the writing slightly smaller than it was originally so that I could fit more writing onto the pages.

I am pleased with my overall product. I think it looks a lot more professional than I thought it would in the end. I am happy with all the colours and layouts of every page. If I had to do this again, the only thing that I think I would change would probably be the amount of time I spent on each page. I think I should have spent a little less time on the contents and front cover because they took me the longest out of all but I am pleased with the final product.

 

I added a few more things to my cover. I included a competition in my magazine because I think if people think they could win something by reading the magazine, then they are more likely to buy it. I made the prize an iphone 4 because its the newest iphone out at the moment and alot of people cant afford one and by entering this competition, they could win one for free which makes it fair for everyone.

I quite like my music magazine cover. I know it will look alot better when it has an image on the front and I may change the background colour to a more plain one but considering this is just my draft, I like it and as my target audience is females from my age to 25ish, I think it's very good and I'd buy it!

Contents page

This is my first draft of my contents page for my music magazine. I've used another picture of Jessie J off the internet until I can upload mine. I've stuck with the same colour theme as the front cover and my double page spread. When I looked through a music magazine, there wasn't just pages about music, there was adverts and pages about beauty and fashion so I've put some of those pages on my contents page. Because my target audience is teenage-young adult females, I think that if there is pages about celebrities fashion then they might find the magazine even more interesting. The blue box is where I'm planning to put another picture of an iphone 4 so people can see what they're winningin the magazine.



Draft

For my front cover, I tried to put as many artists names on the cover so that people who read it would be more interested because there's more people to read about. I also put the barcode on the cover so that it looks like a proper magazine and could be sold in a shop. As my pictures won't upload still, I haven't been able to put an image on my cover yet but on the image that I use, the female artist will be wearing black because on most of the magazine covers that I researched, the artist wears something that matches the colour of the writing on the front or the background. I like how on my cover, I've put the writing up the right hand side because I think it makes it look less crowded and it won't cover too much of the picture which is good because I'd like the image to be the main focus of the magazine. For the image on my magazine, the background will be either black or white because they are both block colours and won't distract from the main image or the writing.

I prefer my second draft alot more to my first one because its starting to actually look like a proper magazine because I spent more time doing this one. I think the whole thing will look alot better when I have an image in the background.

This was my very first draft of my music magazine cover, without any pictures and not much writing. It didn't take me long to do whish is probably why it doesn't look too great.

Front cover research

I was comparing my images that I have taken to the ones on the internet of all the pictures on the front of magazines. I like my images but the ones that are on current music magazines seem alot more sexy. The poses and clothing that they wear is alot more appealing to men. I think the magazine does this so it can attract attention from both male and female readers, men because they want to look at the pictures of the female artists (as most R&B artists are female) and women because they will idolise the woman on the cover and either want to be her or make friends with her, therefore buying and reading the magazine.

On both of these covers, the females aren't wearing much. In many cases, this would look far too revealing but on these magazines, I dont think it's too bad. I think it just makes the magazine look appealing and more interesting. I like how there is only two colours of font on these covers and I've noticed that most magazines have only two colours, one of them always being black because it's a bold colour and look good with any other colour. I think for the writing on my cover, I'll use a maximum of two colours, including black.

My computer broke over half term so I wasn't able to post anything during the past week!

I took my own pictures for my music magazine over half term but I can't get them to show up at the moment so will just have to use ones off the internet until I can work out how to put them on.

Cover reasearch

This is a cover from the magazine 'Blender'. This magazine covers all genres of music but I like the simple lay out, its not too boring but not too busy.

I think this cover appeals to my target audience because some of the writing is pink which indicates that the magazine is mainly aimed at females. The picture of Katy Perry is attractive so most females would want to either befriend her or be her, therefore making them want to aslo read the magazine to find out more about her. I like how the writing looks as if its bending around her body, making her the main focus of the cover and because the writing is surrounding her, you can't not read it and find out what's inside. The picture isn't too revealing either, but it's a sexy image so the magazine may appeal to men also.



I worked out that if I used publisher then I could make my pages into a double page spread as opposed to two separate pages. This is what my final double page spread will look like once its finished but with my own pictures in place of the ones off the internet.

This is my first page of my double page spread with the smaller font. I've managed to fit alot more writing onto one page now that the font is smaller which means I can make my double page spread alot more detailed and better.



I printed off one of the pages for my double page spread just to see what it would look like if it was to be printed as a magazine and the font was far too big so I had to change its size. Because the font's smaller now, I have more room to write more of the interview or put some more pictures in.

I changed the colour scheme to blue and black just to see if it would look any better and I asked a few people which one they're prefer. I asked mainly girls because thats my audience for this magazine.

The majority of them said they prefer it in pink and so do I. I think the blue looks slightly boring and doesn't really appeal to my target audience so I'm going to just keep the colours that I had in the first place. The picture that I take hopefully won't look as 'emo' so I don't think the colours will look punk/rockish.



Double page spread

This was my first draft of my double page spread for my music magazine. I really like it!

I haven't got my own pictures to put on yet so for now, I've used one of Jessie J off the internet because she looks most like the person I'm using. The pink box indicates where another picture will be. I haven't quite worked out how to put the two pages togetether as a double page but I'm working on it! I'm not too sure on the colour scheme though, I think black and pink seem more punk colours.

Research of other music magazines

This contents page is from Q magazine. This magazine covers all genres of music as opposed to just one. On my contents page, I planned on putting more than one picture on it so that people can see images of what is in the magazine instead of just words, Whereas on this contents page, there is only one picture. I assumed that, because the only picture on this contents page is of one person, then the main story in this magazine is about him. The picture of Richard Ashcroft is very eye catching, it makes you feel as if he's looking at you. Although the picture seems quite threatening, I like it because I think it looks like he's in control and like he knows that he's important which is why he's the main story.

This contents page is from Flavour magazine. It's a very different magazine to Q in many ways, you can tell this by just looking at the contents page. Flavour Magazine is a transcultural youth lifestyle magazine for the young ambitious and cool dedicated to showcasing the latest trends in music and a platform for emerging and established creative talent. You can tell from this image that the magazine is mostly aimed at young females because the pictures are all of women and the background of the main picture is bright pink. As a young teenage girl, I prefer this contents page as opposed to Q magazine. I like the colours used and the layout is simple but the pictures are interesting so I dont think it matters.

For my music magazine, I think the audience would be young females aged about 14-21 or so. I think girls tend to buy magazines more than men do which is why Im going to aim my magazine at that type of audience.

Contents Page



This contents page is from Blender music magazine. I don't really like the way that its laid out. I think the writing is too small and it's all bunched up in the top corner, which i dont think looks very good.

Double page spreads

This double page spread is from Flavour magazine, of an R&B genre. I am going to use this to help me decide what sort of things to put on my double page spread. With Alexandra Burke also being the artist on the cover of this particular magazine, it shows her importance within the music genre. There isn't as many images as I expected there to be on this double page spread, there's more writing than pictures. With one image used for the whole double page spread, it shows Alexandra's significance. The simple colour scheme of the page helps Alexandra stand out with her bold dress and her dark skin. This leaves Alexandra and the main topic of her win on the xfactor be the main focus. The basic colour scheme also enables the magazine to appeal to a mixed gender of all different ages.
 I like how some of the things she has said have been quoted in different coloured writing, it makes you want to read more of the interview.

As I am creating an R&B magazine myself, I will deeply look into the features of this magazine to help me.

Because I dont have the pictures that I want to use for my final front cover, I looked up images of famous artists off the internet for now, to get some idea of what sort of picture I'd like on my final cover. However, I dont like all the images that I have used, when I take my photo's, I'd like my friend to do a different pose and I'd like to be able to see the whole body of the person whereas in this image, you can only see her waist and above.

I do like this picture but if it was my own picture, I wouldnt use it because you cant see the rest of her body. The background isnt plain as well, but that could always be edited.

I prefer this image because you can see the bottom half or her body as well as the top half which in my opinion, looks better on the front of a magazine, like this one for example.

I think this looks alot better than the image of beyonce. I also like how the background is plain black and doesn't have any distractions to draw attention away from the main image.



For my music magazine, I decided on the name 'FRESH'. I think this is a good name because my magazine is based on new R&B music, and I think that the word fresh represents new, fresh music and artists that people want to read about. I played around with a few different fonts and colours to help me decide what the title of the magazine should look like.
I also had a go at presenting the word 'contents' like they did on vibe magazine.

My two favourite fonts are probably the one in black writing or the one thats highlighted in black. I know black and white are quite boring colours but I want the background of my front cover to be white so that the image stands out better in colour, and as black and white are contrasting colours,

I think that the title should be either black writing or highlighted black because it looks bold.

For the image on the front, Im going to take pictures of one of my female friends because most R&B magazines have female artists on them such as Rihanna or Beyonce and I think that a picture of a woman is more appealing to both men and women.

Research

This Contents page is from the R&B magazine 'Vibe'. R&B magazines have a different approach towards women than most other music genres and this is shown on this page. R&B music is very much orientated towards sexual women and appearance. The image used on this page represents this. The image of the music artist 'Ciara' is used as she is very popular and this could attract more readers. Her minimal clothing, sexual pose and high heels add to the R&B music stereotypes. Vibe magazine is read by both male and female from a teenage age upwards. This image used can appeal to both male and female in different ways. Women can look at the image and do one of two things; either idolise Ciara or feel negatively about the image. Men can look at the image and admire Ciara. The layout of this contents page is detailed but basic. With just a faded grey background and black and white text, everything is easy to read. Although the font is quite small, everything has a heading and the layout of 'Contents' is big, bold and white to stand out. Ciara's clothes and the colour scheme of the whole contents page match to make the magazine more formal.

 

Thoughts on preliminary task

As my contents page for my college magazine is only a mock up, I didnt put pictures up for every page but i put coloured boxes to indicate where they would go. I numbered the pages evenly because I would want the pages to be double page spreads for each one. I put things in the magazines that I think students would find interesting. All the colours on my contents page match the front cover so you can tell that they are the same magazine.

Overall I think that I managed to capture the codes and conventions of a real magazine effectively. This is because my magazine cover used a medium close-up shot of the cover star as well as using text over the top of the photo, similar to a real magazine. Furthermore, my contents page uses photos along one side with page numbers on top and then a list with further details and page references, comparable to a real magazine. In addition to this, I think the colour scheme used (blue and white) fits the target audience (school students) appropriately. However, one thing that could be improved is the magazine’s heading on the cover; if made slightly bolder and possibly in a different font, it would stand out more and therefore be more successful.

I think the images that I used for my final college magazine fit the pages well. The medium close up shot fits the page well and has a plain background so it isn't too distracting to the eye and you can concentrate on the actual person. The colours that the cover star is wearing match the colour code used for my magazine (blue).

My second draft of my contentes page shows where I want to put the pictures of whats going to be inside the magazine. I think if the contents page shows images of the most interesting things that will be in the magazine, it would make people want to read the rest of the magazine.

Music Magazine

This was my first contents page for my music magazine that I did, its not very colourful or detailed because it was just to get an idea of where I would put the writing and what sort of things I would put in the magazine.



This is my final mock up of my contents page for my preliminary task. Now I can start working on my music magazine!

Research for music magazine

As part of my research for my music magazine, I looked at Flavour, an R&B music magazine. I think I will relate to this magazine mostly in my work because it looks good and can help me with my magazine because its set out well.

The image on the front of the magazine gives you an idea of whats going to be on the double page spread inside. In my opinion, if the image is good, then it makes you want to read the rest of the magazine. So the image that I choose to put on the front of my magazine has to be interesting and eye catching.

I've noticed than on most R&B magazines, the image is mostly of one person as they tend to be R&B solo artists, not bands.



On my first draft of my contents page, the page numbers were just random, I've now changed them so that they go up in two's because it looks better being more even. I've done upto twenty pages because its only a college magazine and I dont think it needs anymore than that.



I added an image from clipart of an ipod so people know what they are winning if they enter the competitions in the magazine. I think an image of the prize would also make someone want to read more of the magazine if there's something in it for them. I also rearranged the writing and made it all the same font because I think it looked too messy being different fonts. I've moved the picture of the computers to the other side of the page because i think it looks more organised if all the writing and the pictures are down the same side.



This is my final contents page before I added all the final writing and pictures..

This is my second draft of my contents page. Although. its not perfect, I prefer this one because I like the darker background and I think it looks better without all the boxes. Because its darker, i think it makes my magazine look a bit more professional whereas my first draft looked a bit childish in my opinion.

This contents page isn't finished yet. I think it needs a lot more pictures and some more things to make the student want to read the magazine.

This is my first draft of my contents page for my college magazine.

I tried to match the colour scheme with the front cover by using the same shades of blue and white writing.



Music Magazine

Before I started my music magazine, I researched R&B magazines. I love the pictures on Vibe magazine.

Final Cover

I think this is my final college magazine cover! I'm going to show a few people it to see if they can see any spelling mistakes that I may have missed or anything they think I could improve, but overall I'm happy with my final cover! Since my last post, I have changed some of the font on the cover because I didn't think it fitted in with the rest of the magazine.