In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The brief was to create a front cover, contents page and double page spread of a music magazine with a certain genre. To do this I looked at several magazines such as NME, Q and Kerrang to understand the conventions and ways of which to appeal to my chosen target audience.
I found that the similarities between all three front covers where the use of a mast head, cover lines, bar code, a main image and main feature, this gave me an idea of what is usually put onto a magazine to make it look conventional and professional.
You can tell from image above what the similarities between the NME front cover and my own are and how I have included conventions of a music magazine. These are things such as the cover lines which use a variety of fonts, sizes and colours, the main feature being in a much larger font, the image relating to the main feature which is a long shot of an indie/rock artist I made up wearing a top which says ‘I’m with in the band’ which relates to the genre of the magazine as indie rock artists tend to be in bands and females tend to be with the band rather than in them. Also, a sell line which adds to the house style of the magazine and the bar code with the price and date. All of these features make my magazine more conventional and there for similar to other media products.
I also added footer as I wanted to include more information on what will be featured inside my magazine without overcrowding the front cover and to also add to the conventions as footer are used in magazines such as Kerrang.
I decided not to use some conventions, an example of this would be the flash which I took off my magazine in one of the drafts, this is because it made the page look over crowded and didn’t fit well with the layout. I also didn’t add a sky line as I thought it would look too much with a footer included at the bottom as well.
Moving on to the contents page I found that similarities between Q’s, NME’s and Kerrang’s where the use of titles, feature section, review section, news section, page numbers, thumbnail images, information on the articles featured in the magazine and an editors letter.
By looking at the images above you can see how I have used certain conventions from existing to make my own look more professional and appeal more to my target audience. To do this I included a title which is ‘contents’ but to make mine stand out from other magazines I also included the mast head from the previous page and placed it behind the title.
There is a section down the left hand side of the page which has subheadings ‘News’ ‘Featured’ ‘review’ and ‘regulars’ which have information on different articles that will be in the magazine and a page number which tells the audience where to find them. I was inspired to do this by looking at Kerrang’s contents page as I thought it looked conventional and was a visually interesting way of presenting the information with thick, bold subheading’s and a variety of different fonts in colours red, white and black also used on the front cover to create a house style which people can recognise.
In the first draft I had a section which gave information on subscribing for my magazine, but to make it look even more conventional I took it off to make more room for other thumbnail images of artists featured in the articles. These where all taken by me and manipulated to look more professional. When put onto the contents page I added borders, information on the article and the page number.
I decided not to include an editors letter as there was no room on the page and I thought it wasn’t as important or necessary than other conventions.
I also included an arrow which I got the idea from the NME magazine, I think this is another way of giving information which is more interesting for the reader rather than just plain writing.
I then went onto the double page spread, again researching into existing magazines Kerrang, Q and NME I looked for similarities which i could use in my own double page spread to make it more conventional. i found that all of them had a main image, quotes from the article in larger fonts, introduction to article, an article, by line and name of the artist. 
When comparing and looking at similarities between my own double page spread and NME's, you can see where conventions have been researched, thought about and used to entice my target audience. The main image takes over the full left hand side of the page like the one in the NME article, this is a conventional method and depending on the location, clothing and facial expression can say a lot about the article and the person in it. There is a quote across the image to give a preview of what will be spoken about and another one in the middle of the article which does the same thing.
The artists name goes slightly over the image and is in a different font which stands out to the audience and will attract them into reading it if they like the artist. A small introduction to the article highlights the main things that will be spoken about.
Little things such as page numbers make a big difference into making it look more professional, there is also an anchorage which i included to explain what is going on in the image and a byline which gives information on who the interview was done by and who took the image(s).
How does your media product represent particular groups?
My music magazine is aimed at teens to late 20's and mostly males. I represented this target audience firstly by the clothing the artist on the front cover was wearing. The leather skirt is stereotypically related to rock. Her top also says 'I'mwith in the band' which suggests that unlike most woman who are seen as groupies she's dominant and part of the indie/rock culture rather than an admirer of it, this is a good way or representing the woman who read the magazine although there aren't as many female readers they will feel part they are being invited into it rather than feeling like an outsider and dominated over the males who like this genre of music.
In the double page spread she is wearing a checked shirt and the room she is in looks messy, the Target audience can relate to this as a stereotype of teenagers is how messy their bedrooms/houses are, by this artist having the same and not caring about it shows something that her and most of the target audience have in common.
Dark red is associated with willpower, rage, anger, leadership and courage. For this particular magazine it connotes rage and anger which people in the age group of my target audience could relate to as they are seen as being very angry, moody and rebellious quite a lot of the time. The black highlights the other colours and represents rock which is usually dark and seen as devils music and also leather which is stereotypically related to rock music, and the white represents the purer, nicer more childlike side of them which can appear sometimes when they need help or feel vulnerable.
The sell lines talk about artists such as Arctic Monkeys, Foals and Muse who are all indies bands, this means i am giving my target audience stories and information about artists they want to hear about, which makes them more likely to buy and read the magazine each month.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Because my magazine is the same genre as NME it is unlikely that IPC would distribute as they wouldn't gain much of a profit due to the fact that they aren't getting a wider target audience that they don't already provide the indie rock genre for, therefore i would say that the institution more likely to distribute my product would be Bauer as they don't provide a magazine with the genre that my magazine is about. This would mean a bigger target audience for them and therefore more of a profit.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Like NME's target audience mine is going to be teens to late 20's and mostly males, this is because it is known that indie rock music has is mostly a male dominated genre and this age group are still going to festivals and gigs and are passionate about music and are often buying/downloading albums. They're young socialites and first time earners, There life style would be rebellious and because they don't have very important job's and mostly will be at university they are therefore still wanting to go out and enjoy their lives, But also enjoy watching movies at the cinema and programs on the television. They also like to be in style think of music as being an important part of their lives.
stats would be: 67% male and 33% female
How did you attract your audience?
The artists name goes slightly over the image and is in a different font which stands out to the audience and will attract them into reading it if they like the artist. A small introduction to the article highlights the main things that will be spoken about.
Little things such as page numbers make a big difference into making it look more professional, there is also an anchorage which i included to explain what is going on in the image and a byline which gives information on who the interview was done by and who took the image(s).
How does your media product represent particular groups?
My music magazine is aimed at teens to late 20's and mostly males. I represented this target audience firstly by the clothing the artist on the front cover was wearing. The leather skirt is stereotypically related to rock. Her top also says 'I'm
In the double page spread she is wearing a checked shirt and the room she is in looks messy, the Target audience can relate to this as a stereotype of teenagers is how messy their bedrooms/houses are, by this artist having the same and not caring about it shows something that her and most of the target audience have in common.
Dark red is associated with willpower, rage, anger, leadership and courage. For this particular magazine it connotes rage and anger which people in the age group of my target audience could relate to as they are seen as being very angry, moody and rebellious quite a lot of the time. The black highlights the other colours and represents rock which is usually dark and seen as devils music and also leather which is stereotypically related to rock music, and the white represents the purer, nicer more childlike side of them which can appear sometimes when they need help or feel vulnerable.
The sell lines talk about artists such as Arctic Monkeys, Foals and Muse who are all indies bands, this means i am giving my target audience stories and information about artists they want to hear about, which makes them more likely to buy and read the magazine each month.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Because my magazine is the same genre as NME it is unlikely that IPC would distribute as they wouldn't gain much of a profit due to the fact that they aren't getting a wider target audience that they don't already provide the indie rock genre for, therefore i would say that the institution more likely to distribute my product would be Bauer as they don't provide a magazine with the genre that my magazine is about. This would mean a bigger target audience for them and therefore more of a profit.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Like NME's target audience mine is going to be teens to late 20's and mostly males, this is because it is known that indie rock music has is mostly a male dominated genre and this age group are still going to festivals and gigs and are passionate about music and are often buying/downloading albums. They're young socialites and first time earners, There life style would be rebellious and because they don't have very important job's and mostly will be at university they are therefore still wanting to go out and enjoy their lives, But also enjoy watching movies at the cinema and programs on the television. They also like to be in style think of music as being an important part of their lives.
stats would be: 67% male and 33% female
How did you attract your audience?
I attracted my target audience by giving them information on the music they love though reviews, features and the latest news. The artists featured are ones that they want to know about and therefore they're more likely to buy the magazine. The main feature which is a made up artist would also appeal to them as they're always looking for fresh new music that is unique, her style would stand out as she is wearing a leather skirt, checked shirt and a velvet dress in different images which suggests an individual style rather than a mainstream artist who follows the trends which would attract my target audience who do not like mainstream music and trends.
I made a questionnaire which i got people between the ages of 16 and 30 to answer to see if the things featured in my magazine appeal to them.
I made a questionnaire which i got people between the ages of 16 and 30 to answer to see if the things featured in my magazine appeal to them.
This shows that my target audience would be interested in my magazine as they would want to read about the music and artists spoken about and featured.
I also created a prezi which shows audience feedback via the link below.
http://prezi.com/tf0b1xsl_1nb/audience-feedback/
I also created a prezi which shows audience feedback via the link below.
http://prezi.com/tf0b1xsl_1nb/audience-feedback/
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
From creating this magazine i have picked up and learnt a lot of photoshop skills that will help me make even better products in the future. These are things such as the spot fix and blur tools which help improve the quality of an image make it look more professional. An example of this is the main image on the front cover of my magazine.
the one on the left is before it has been edited and the right is after edit. You can see that the skin looks much clearer and also by cropping the image it looks more like a conventional image for a front cover.
I also learnt how to use the select tool and layer things up to make sort out the order of things on my magazine, i did this on my front cover and contents page. Doing this makes them look more professional and fits more things onto a page without making them look over crowded.
Layering was also a new skill which i picked up whilst creating my magazine, i learnt that by moving the layers above and below each other you could move the things which where on the magazine to add backgrounds to text and images, this was useful when adding in an image of the bar code which i then also wanted the date and price of the magazine to be visible when placed on top of it.
Look back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking at the difference between my college magazine and my music magazine shows how much progress i have made through making them. The college magazine looks less professional as the cover lines are all placed randomly around the page, the flash looks out of place, the mast head doesn't stand out and isn't bold and big enough and neither is the main headline.
It shows that by researching more into the conventions of a magazine before producing it can make a big difference to the overall end product.
A lot more effort has gone into the making of my music magazine, this can be seen my the difference in mast heads on the two products, the music one looks more professional and thought about where as the college one is just a simple standard font with nothing to suggest a house style. The cover lines on the music magazine stand out a lot more and have a variety of fonts and different coloured backgrounds in comparison to the college magazine's cover lines which look plain, dull and are also quite hard to read as they blend in with the background colour.
By using a much larger bolder font for the main headline it shows the audience that is the main part of the magazine this months, therefore if they're interested in that artist they're more likely to read the magazine were as the college magazine's main feature is almost the same size as the cover lines and doesn't stand out very much.
I think the two documents are so different as i have picked up more skills from the preliminary task which helped me to do an even better job on the music magazine, this meant that when i looked back at the college magazine it looked less professional and I could pick out where I could have improved on it with my new skills and knowledge of conventions.
