Sunday, 15 March 2015
Saturday, 14 March 2015
Preliminary Activity
The two pictures above are pieces of work that I have done using Photoshop to make a school magazine. I took the images myself and selected these three from 24 different photos. I chose the cover page image because ‘Cam’ had eye contact with the camera and also the way he is standing made it easier to layout my text and headings.
I chose the font because I thought it was easy to read
and also bold for the audience to see. I drew the colour of the heading font
out from the badge on ‘Cam’s football shirt to keep within the colour scheme of
my page. The colour scheme that I chose to do for this preliminary activity is
white, navy and blue. This stereotypically makes the magazine look more male
directed however my target audience would be anyone between the age of 16 and
18.
Evaluation Question 1 Draft
- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The masthead of my
magazine ‘CONFIDE’, was done using the font ‘impact’ which was already on the
Photoshop software and is also available on other sources like Microsoft word.
The font itself is quite tall and bold therefore stands out to the audience and
will grasp the reader’s attention. This convention is similar to the majority
of other magazines as they all want to get an audience’s attention just from
looks on top of the content. The reason why I chose the title ‘CONFIDE’ was
firstly so it was easy to remember. On top of this the definition of ‘confide’
is: ‘tell someone about a secret or
private matter while trusting them not to repeat it to others’. I feel that
this makes my magazine seem more private and exclusive therefore the audience
will presume that the magazine is also exclusive to only them with more private
and exclusive content about the musical artists that they like. I felt when I
decided on this name that it would make my audience feel important and that
they could relate more to the chart artists as the content in some cases was a
lot more personal. Furthermore my target audience would most probably have
secrets about themselves and friends therefore having the title ‘Confide’
meaning secrets could match the identity of my target audience. My masthead and
title font in my opinion would be quite similar to other magazines in the
market, like COSMOPOLITAN and BLISS magazine. I think this because they are
also very bold titled magazines that stand out on the cover of the magazine. My
‘CONFIDE’ masthead is layered behind my central main image but on top of the
background and this makes my model look more eye catching however it also
relates back to the definition of Confide itself, secrets and hiding things
from another and the masthead is theoretically ‘hiding’ behind the main image.
I tried to make my magazine quite full so that my target audience saw straight
away that it would be full of content.
The graphology of and on my front
cover for my magazine is quite busy compared to some other magazines as for
one, I have used a few different fonts including, ‘impact’, ‘candara’ and
others. These fonts were used for my masthead and then also my surrounding text
informing the audience of the content within the magazine. The fonts that I
chose to use are quite simplistic and this means that they will easy for my
target audience to read and also so that they are bold and eye catching. The
colours that I have used for all the text are also quite bold as they are,
‘black’, ‘blue’ and ‘white’. These colours complement each other when on top of
each other and also pink which I have also included on my cover (no text
written in pink). These colours were chosen also as they went well with
‘HUMAN’s’ logo which is white and pink and they are also the main feature of
this particular magazine. The reason why I chose to use black for the masthead
is so that it is clear and bold when layered on top of the grey/white
background. My masthead needs to be bold and eye catching as it needs to gain
the attention of my target audience, potential customers and it will also help
to promote my magazine. I used a white text layered on a black background below
the masthead and this makes this piece of text ‘exclusive access’ stand out to
the audience further as it doesn’t match the title too much. However below this
I have also used black text for the price, issue number and month of the issue.
I have made this piece of text black and chose to put it on the grey background
next to the barcode as this is important information that doesn’t need to stand
out the page but does need to be readable as its information that the audience
would need to know on purchasing the product. For example, they would need to
know the cost of the magazine straight away. Also on the cover I have included
information about what is going to be featured inside the magazine. These
pieces of texts are highly important factors of a/my magazine cover page as it
is what will initially gain the customers attention and engage them into buying
my product but it also informs them about what artists are going to be in it.
This means that this information is important to stand out and this is why I
have chosen bold colours to use for my colour scheme and I have layered the
colours on top of each other so that they are easy to read. For a lot of my
text I have put a shape like a box behind the text so that the text is easier
to read rather than putting it straight on to the main cover image. The
majority of the text on the front would be the main features of my magazine
therefore it is important that they stand out the most.
The black colour being used is one of
the most powerful and prominent colours on the page however I feel the most
powerful colour overall on my cover page would be the blue and pink as they add
impact to specific features of the cover that will grasp the attention of the
audience and further potential customers. The choice of the size of the text
was generally down to the importance of what was being said and was to be
noticed first. For example; having the text about HUMAN in a bold circle makes
it more visible to the audience and this means they will pick up on this being
the main feature. Having the larger text, like the masthead, as the more
important features helps will branding and labelling my magazine or product.
Furthermore, it is the cover lines which express the main topics and content of
my magazine therefore it is important to engage the audience’s attention
through graphology related features on the cover e.g. text size. The cover
layout was slightly influenced by the BLISS magazine layout and this is because
of the fullness of the page engaging the audience’s attention. However on my
magazine I have rotated my barcode 90 degrees and made it smaller as on BLISS
magazine the barcode is actually on a larger scale. My barcode is just below
the masthead of my magazine and I chose to put it there so that my target
audience wouldn’t be faffing about looking for it before purchasing the
product. I also chose my barcode to be quite skinny so that it didn’t take up
too much space on the cover page that could be used for the content. I kept developing
my idea to get this final result because previously I had put in a larger barcode
but I then had audience feedback and felt that it stood out slightly too much
therefore I reduced the size. The overall layout of my magazine is again
similar to the cover of BLISS magazine but also COSMOPOLITAN magazine and this
is due to some of the similar conventions like the large bold masthead and also
the mass of the content on the cover page itself. I decided that I should keep
my magazine cover busy as I felt this is what my target audience would be
looking for and they would want a lot going on, on the cover page. As a result
I felt that this has met the needs and interests of my particular target
audience.
My model and musical artist ‘Charlie
Dickins’ (cover girl) was styled in two different dark coloured outfits in the
photo shoot for my magazine and this is so that the colours didn’t clash with
the content surrounding the image. ‘Charlie Dickins’ is my cover girl but she
is also part of the band ‘HUMAN’ which is the featured band on my double page
spread. On these pages you can only see her wearing two different outfits
however they are of similar colour. Her first outfit is a grey bodycon dress
with black panels down both sides and her second outfit is black jeans and
black crop top with a high neck line. This made my model stand out when next to
all the text as if she was wearing colourful clothing her outfit may have been
less noticeable next to the vibrant content and colours. Her clothes are the type
of thing you would find in a high street shop that is very popular therefore as
an audience that would be interested in fashion and having their own look they
could relate to the models style. This style also relates to artists you may
see in other magazines like BLISS or COSMOPOLITAN. My model is styled to look
around the age of 18 or 19 and this is so that she is of an age of who would be
setting an example and being a role model to the younger female target
audience. I am using conventions from real magazines and products to make my
artist look as realistic and as suitable for my magazine genre which is
pop/chart. I have found that my model does look suitable for my magazine and
this is easily seen throughout my cover, contents and double page spread.
Continuing through my magazine I kept my two main models (HUMAN band) in
similar dark colours of black and grey. Having these two colours for my models
meant that I could easily have different bolder colours around them as you can
see on my double page spread.
Evaluation Question 2 Draft
2. How does
your media product represent particular social groups?
During my research and planning before starting to produce my media product, I looked at different audiences, created audience profiles and made artist profiles. I found that this was an important feature of my magazine as I had to make sure that the features of my magazine attracted my target audience which were younger girls who were interested in chart and pop music and the social group around this genre. Having my genre as this I know what social group I need to talk towards and it also has given me a clear idea of what type of audience will be buying my music magazine. I carried out some research into a social group using UK Tribes and also a personal survey given to those I would stereotype as my audience for my magazine. UK Tribes is a website that has lots of different categories about youth groups and what they would fit into. There is a lot of variation also on the website so I looked under the name ‘Mainstream’ which had further information about things like ‘fangirls’. This label was suitable to my magazine as it was also an example of a target audience that I had described. Fangirl’s are a type of audience that fit into the social group of who my magazine is marketed towards. This label also goes alongside nicely with my genre of pop/chart. After reviewing this research that I found on the website I found that fangirls and this tribe and social group ‘are an entry level, heavily female-biased Tribe who are passionately devoted to pop icons and twitter’ and this means firstly relates to my target audience but also my idea of relating my media product to a website also. This website could then have relations with twitter. The research into fangirls and pop culture also suggests that the fangirl tribe ‘has grown exponentially in strength, size and influence thanks to social media – especially Twitter. Thanks to the internet and ‘always on’ celebrity culture, young Fan Girls can now follow their idols’ every move from their bedroom – in the company of thousands of other Fan Girls online.’ This encourages me further to use well-known artists but to also create new bands and artists to further extend the fangirl social group to a wider audience.
During my research and planning before starting to produce my media product, I looked at different audiences, created audience profiles and made artist profiles. I found that this was an important feature of my magazine as I had to make sure that the features of my magazine attracted my target audience which were younger girls who were interested in chart and pop music and the social group around this genre. Having my genre as this I know what social group I need to talk towards and it also has given me a clear idea of what type of audience will be buying my music magazine. I carried out some research into a social group using UK Tribes and also a personal survey given to those I would stereotype as my audience for my magazine. UK Tribes is a website that has lots of different categories about youth groups and what they would fit into. There is a lot of variation also on the website so I looked under the name ‘Mainstream’ which had further information about things like ‘fangirls’. This label was suitable to my magazine as it was also an example of a target audience that I had described. Fangirl’s are a type of audience that fit into the social group of who my magazine is marketed towards. This label also goes alongside nicely with my genre of pop/chart. After reviewing this research that I found on the website I found that fangirls and this tribe and social group ‘are an entry level, heavily female-biased Tribe who are passionately devoted to pop icons and twitter’ and this means firstly relates to my target audience but also my idea of relating my media product to a website also. This website could then have relations with twitter. The research into fangirls and pop culture also suggests that the fangirl tribe ‘has grown exponentially in strength, size and influence thanks to social media – especially Twitter. Thanks to the internet and ‘always on’ celebrity culture, young Fan Girls can now follow their idols’ every move from their bedroom – in the company of thousands of other Fan Girls online.’ This encourages me further to use well-known artists but to also create new bands and artists to further extend the fangirl social group to a wider audience.
From the research I did I also
feel that my magazine needed to feature some kind of male ‘attraction’ as
stereotypical fangirls go for bands and male groups? This also meant including
new musicians that have variation and don’t stick to one particular genre.
Furthermore my magazine would also need to include some kind of link to another
area of media, so perhaps a website of which my audience can read further
articles and research more into these new artists etc. However mainstream and
chart/pop involve some quite popular musical artists therefore I would have to
keep some of these involved to gain a social groups attention. On top of this
to keep on the same level as my target audience and make sure that my media
product represents the needs of the social group so I made the decision to
dress my models/artists in similar clothing as my audience members. This would
be so that there was some similarity and relation between the artists and the
audience. I chose my artist ‘HUMAN’ who is a new girl duo/band who dress in
black and grey clothes but look very glamorous. This style could easily be
copied and duplicated for the audience and target social groups. This all
represents the social group which I have researched and found information
about. My artists are around the age of 18-19 and my target audience of around
14-20 year olds so I feel this is a good age to platform my artists. I am
comparing my upcoming artist ‘HUMAN’ to two members of the band ‘Little Mix’.
These are a well-known, pop music, girl band that have quite a large fan based
of fangirls and chart followers. I have represented my artist ‘HUMAN’ in the
mainstream social group as Little Mix would also fit into this area of UK
Tribes and this social group. This is by the way I have styled the girls. This
represents my audience (social group) as its not indie or alternation and this
means that it isn’t following this particular crowd of people. The clothes that
the girls are wearing in the images would be similar to the clothes you could
get hold of in high street shops and this represents some of the clothing shops
that some of my target audience would go to and by similar clothes from.
Styling my artist like the girls from Little Mix will certainly help gain
customers and a further audience to my product as it will engage with the
interests they already have. I have also represented my social group within my
article and with other images of my artist within my media product as some of
the images of ‘HUMAN’ are quite natural and fun and this would be how the
‘fangirl’ audience would like it. On top of this I have also spoke briefly
about their tour and their musical career and this means that it is relatively
similar to what would be written in magazine with an article about Little Mix
in it.
Evaluation Question 3 Draft
3. What kind of media institution might distribute
your media product and why?
Publishing
is the process of which production and distribution of something like, music, literature,
and other information go through before it reaches their audience. There is
lots of different distribution and publishing companies that are all within the
media industry and these companies include: Bauer Publishing, Time Inc.,
Meredith and a variety of others. One other publishing company includes IPC
Media, which is an international publishing company. This company is one of the
UK’s leading and most successful digital and magazine publishing companies and
it also has a large reputation of selling over a million copies of their different
magazines in just a year. The company also own 60 of the more well-known
brands. On top of this IPC owns many magazines and their brands like NME. NME
is a very successful magazine known for its musical knowledge and articles. Furthermore
it also owns a magazine called NUTS which is a well-known men’s leisure
magazine and a women’s weekly magazine called NOW which is also very
successful.
The
money used for the production and the publishing of my magazine, CONFIDE, would
all be funded from different adverts and promotion of products from other
companies. An example of advertisement that would be included in my magazine,
includes, tour advertising and perhaps merchandise for a particular artist. To
get the finances I would charge the companies a sum of money for a certain
amount of space in my magazine and this would be to ensure that I can afford
the production and publishing but also that they can promote their products to
a wider audience. This would be a benefit to these companies because it means
that they will be being advertised to a larger audience and perhaps a different
type of audience that may develop an interest in the product due to it being in
my magazine. A reason why it would be benefitting my magazine would be because
it will be helping to fund my magazine and make it more successful. The overall
inspiration to use advertisement and promotion was to then gain the attention
of production companies and their funding by large ranges of other magazine
producers such as, ID magazine and Dazed magazine.
Overall
I feel that IPC Media is the appropriate and suitable institution to publish my
‘CONFIDE’ magazine as it has a large range of experience within publishing and
distribution of many successful and categorised magazines. Also, it has the
experience and knowledge of publishing female targeted magazines like ‘Look’.
Look magazine is for quite young people therefore the register of the articles
would be suitable and similar to that of my magazine. This will be a benefit to
my magazine production as IPC’s producers can be a support to my magazine and
inspire me with designing and developing my magazine further. An example of
this is that they could make recommendations of where to distribute my magazine
to my audience and what customers will have the largest in my magazine. It is
important to have the correct media institution to help promote my media magazine
so that it is successful.
Evaluation Question 4 Draft
4. Who would be the audience for
your media product?
Name: Olivia Moore
Name: Amy Fowles
From the research that I did for
my target audience of fangirls/chart and pop followers, I came to the
conclusion that my music magazines audience would be exclusively targeted
towards females in the age bracket of 14 - 20. I feel that this age range is an
appropriate one to target at as this is when my audience will be the most
interested in lots of different types of music therefore the charts and pop
industry would be suitable to this crowd of people. Fangirls can be found in
all sorts of genres of music therefore having and pop/chart magazine would
reach a further audience than just limiting it to an indie/alternative
audience. I have also based my target
audience on the liveliness and bubbliness of the content and the colour scheme
of which I will use. I have looked at
research and have noticed that when it comes to gigs and concerts, people who
are under 18 sometimes have to attend with an adult therefore I would need to
have artists within my magazine that would be appropriate for 18+ people who
would want to attend but also families in some ways as those 14 year olds that
read my magazine would have to take perhaps a parent. Therefore I would have to
have artists appropriate for everyone to read about and enjoy yet still fall
into the social category of my target market. I have chosen the age of 20 as
the stop point for my target audience as this is when people will be in
university and may lose interest in magazines and pop music. On top of this,
people may start to settle down and have less colourful lifestyles and this
could have an impact on their musical interests.
The sales to the different ages
could have different results each month and this could be due to the artists
that I feature in my magazine. An example being that; bands like One Direction
could attract the younger ages of my target market whereas Clean Bandit might
be more towards the older groups. This would have an effect on the sales. The
genre of my magazine and the music within it is pop/chart music and this means
that my magazine will focus on groups of fans together and how they support a
particular artist rather than their differences between each other. I would
presume my audience to have similar fashion sense to each other also and act
towards music in similar ways rather than having contradicting opinions like
the audience of an indie/alternation magazine. I feel that there is a gap in
the market for a magazine of my genre for this age group as BLISS magazine, the
magazine I used for research, has been disbanded and no longer runs therefore
my magazine would be popular alternative for this audience. On top of this I
feel that a lot of the magazines that are out there at the minute are quite
alternative/indie. From this I am now aware that for my own magazine I need to
offer a bigger range of artists that are known and unknown and also information
about these artists within my magazine but still keep it at a reasonable price.
The price that I have put on my magazine is £3.99 and I feel this is an
appropriate price for my magazine as it isn’t too expensive for my audience.
When designing and producing my
magazine I had to make sure that I kept all my research in mind and make sure
that my magazine fits the style and genre that I chose for my target audience.
This would be to ensure that my audience are interested in my magazine and
also that the artists that I have created ‘HUMAN’ is appropriate in clothing
styles for my genre and audience. The hair styles of my artists are quite
glamourous rather than being messy or unusual and this is a popular style for
this genre of magazine. It is similar to other pop artists like Selena Gomez
who styles her hair has quite big and wavy. I also styled and designed my
magazine so that it was bold and full so that there is lots’ going on for my
audience to see. On top of this it also matches the genre more appropriately.
Below are two audience profiles,
which I feel are the type of girls who would read this style and genre of
magazine. They have similar style to my artists and they also fit in well with
my target audience research meaning they could be potential customers of ‘CONFIDE’
magazine. On top of this I also asked the two girls a few questions about my
magazine which could soon go onto the magazine market. These questions could
include questions like; ‘would you be willing to buy this magazine if it was to
go onto the pop/chart magazine market?’, ‘how much would you pay for this
magazine?’ and finally ‘what artists would you like to read about in a music
magazine?’
Name: Olivia Moore
Age: 16
Interests: Dancing, listening to music
Favourite Clothes Shop: H and M
Favourite Artist: Rhianna
Currently Read: There isn’t really
a music magazine that I’m interested in at the minute so I just read fashion
magazines…
Question 1: Would you be willing to buy this magazine if it was to go
onto the pop/chart magazine market? Yes definitely because like I said there aren’t really any pop ones for
my age group at the minute.
Question 2: How much would you pay for this magazine? I don’t know, it depends really, I think up to
£4.50
Question 3: What artists would you like to read about in a music
magazine? Well Rhianna
if I’m honest but I quite like the idea of having new artists to read about.
Name: Amy Fowles
Age: 19
Interests: Love dancing
and singing and all things like that
Favourite Clothes Shop: Newlook, River Island etc
Favourite Artist: I like most
music that’s in the charts. Like Ed Sheeran though
Currently Read: I read a lot
of online articles on buzzfeed
Question 1: Would you be willing to buy this magazine if it was to go
onto the pop/chart magazine market? Yeah sure, looks really cool and interesting to me
Question 2: How much would you pay for this magazine? Well, I don’t have a job at the minute so only
perhaps £3 - £4…
Question 3: What artists would you like to read about in a music
magazine? Anyone who
quite well known and in the charts and stuff.
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