The target
audience I have chosen for my R&B music magazine ‘The Game’ are teenagers
and young adults between the ages of 16 and 50 as they will most likely have a
wide interest and knowledge of music and they will probably find top ten
singles, news about their favourite artists and find reading about artists very
entertaining. Also, the younger generation communicate a lot meaning that
information about new artists and magazines will probably be spread around
quite quickly at these ages. Also, they will probably have a lot more time on
their hands than older adults to read magazines.
Furthermore, the
ideal reader of my magazine would be both males and females as R&B music is
targeted at both genres, however it will be more targeted at females as my
magazine is going to appear slightly more feminine than masculine. This
audience would probably be very communicative in a busy town talking with
others a lot of the time. In their spare time they would watch channels on TV
such as MTV, 4 Music, VIVA, Smash Hits etc.. Their Sundays would consist of
them listening to music and discovering news about their favourite artists and
the music industry. Furthermore, the reason why I have picked this particular
audience is because it is a young age where teenagers communicate a lot more
and get into music a lot more and also start earning their own money so they
would be able to pay for their own magazines, therefore the magazine would be
affordable for them to purchase. Aswell as this, because the teenagers are interested
in music at this age they will be more passionate about discovering upcoming
news and therefore buying magazines to discover this.
Anyone younger
than the age of 16 would probably not have a large passion for music because
they do not know about past magazines so therefore they are still trying to
discover about new magazines but do not have enough knowledge about specific
genred magazines. I think that a male and female’s interest in magazines can
vary depending on who the artist is, however I will make sure that my magazine
contains information that both males and females will be interested in. This is
also the age where young adults are maturing and beginning to become more
independent.
The social class
of my magazine will be mostly aimed at B, C1, C2 as the magazine will be
written in simple English therefore it will not be too complex for the audience
to understand for the lower social category so when they see the front cover
they will not feel daunted, intimidated and put-off. Additionally they will
have more time to read the magazine because someone in the social category A
would be top level management which suggests that they will not have a lot of
time to read magazines and perhaps also not a very wide interest in magazines.
Demographically
my target audience will be aimed at any race as it will be ethically acceptable
for anyone from any country. The people will be living in places such as
perhaps Camden Town, either having a job or being in full-time education, in
some cases both. This therefore signifies the Uses and Gratifications theory as
there will be escapism due to the fact that the reader may want to explore and
find out new things different from the world they are living in now or perhaps
to get their mind off things.
The ideal target audience I have set for
my magazine would preferably be people that shop at places like Topshop, River Island,
Missguided and Urban Outfitters. This is because these shops commonly include
the types of outfits that R&B artists wear. The females would be really
into the jewellery as R&B artists usually wear a lot of jewellery to make
themselves look glamorous. Furthermore, the advantage of my audience shopping
in these particular shops is that they may all s0cialise and communicate at
these shops, therefore share information about their latest/favourite magazines
with eachother.
Moreover, I
believe that other habits my audience will have is buying magazines often,
music albums, posters and gig lists. They would also be very interested in tour
dates and one nof the most important thing also would be that they buy tickets
to see their favourite artists perform live often.
Furthermore, my
target audience’s hobbies would be preferably based on listening to music, but
also maybe dancing and perhaps singing/rapping to themselves. This is because
these hobbies generally relate to R&B and a lot of dancing, singing and
rapping is included in the R&B genre.
A typical reader
of my magazine’s profile would perhaps be: their name being Stacey Parker, her
age is 18, her occupation is college, she likes R&B music, attending gigs
and similar events, researching about her favourite R&B artists,
dancing/singing, fitting in with the R&B trends and wearing similar clothes
to artists like Rihanna, and meeting new people through social events and
groups. However she dislikes overrated singers and rock bands, anyone who
judges music taste and people who are not open-minded. Her reasons for reading
R&B magazines are that they are affordable, they include freebies such as
single releases, interviews with her favourite artists, and that it gives out
gossips on artists you can’t find anywhere else. Her all-time favourite artist
would be Rihanna.
When I started
to create my magazine, I firstly had to think about how I was going to make it
appeal to the audience of the genre I had chosen as no magazine can continue
into production without sales. I used similar product research to give me a
better idea about the typical conventions of R&B music magazines and their
success, aswell as carrying out a questionnaire with people who were of my
magazine’s target audience and concluding the results of these. Once I felt I
had gathered enough knowledge I began to create my own magazine with a target
audience of people between the ages of 16-30 of both genders, but mainly
females.
The most
important characteristic of any magazine is to establish how you can
differentiate yours from others, either competing against its typical
conventions or going with them. I mainly wanted to make my music magazine stand
out on a shelf, however I did take careful consideration of the R&B genre’s
typical codes and conventions too so that my magazine didn’t seem too
different, therefore looking unprofessional and strange. Firstly, on my front
cover I created a white, bold masthead to make it look high class, sleek and
basic in order to reflect the common connotations of a masthead but also to
establish a brand font and image that would be commonly recognised within my
magazine. Also, for magazines that have a young target audience, the colour
white is commonly used as it holds connotations of youth and innocence, so I
followed this convention. Furthermore, my model is holding direct eye contact
with the camera lense which is very common of music magazines as they believe
it creates a personal equality connection between the artist and the reader,
however my model is holding a blank facial expression which is unconventional
for an R&B magazine because usually in R&B magazines the artist has
some sort of facial expression whether it be smiling, frowning or laughing.
However I figured that my model’s outfit looks very feminine so to go against
this, I needed something to make her look a bit more intimidating and
different. The emotionless facial expression also reflects the characteristics
of the artist and implies that they are rebellious and daring. This is
appealing to the audience and therefore lures them into reading it as they want
to discover the story behind the facial expression. Also, the image of my model
is a mid-shot which is very conventional for an R&B magazine as most
producers decide that mid-shots look best on front covers. I did decide to
follow this convention by doing so. I then selected the colours of purple,
black and white because purple holds connotations of royalty and quirkiness,
suggesting that my magazine is different, going against typical conventions of
R&B magazines, white being youthful, innocent and sophisticated, and black
holding connotations of darkness and maturity. I have seen the colours purple
and red be used in R&B magazines before so typically this is quite
conventional. Furthermore, it holds the conventions of creating a relationship
with the reader as when they see these colours they instantly know that it is
my magazine. My magazine also holds the typical conventions of having a banner
at the top and bottom of the page.
My contents page
also conforms to the typical conventions of R&B genre magazines like Vibe
as I have created an ‘Editor’s Note’, introducing the reader to my magazine and
filling them in briefly of its contents. Most magazines in general have this on
their contents pages. This will appeal to my target audience as it comes across
as welcoming, therefore inviting them in further to my magazine. It also adds a
personal effect to the magazine, reminding the reader that the magazine was
actually written by a person who is just like them. I have also placed the ‘Twitter’,
‘app’ and ‘subscribe’ features to the page, therefore appealing to young
readers who will be interested in social networking sites and the internet,
allowing them to form even more of a personal relationship with the magazine as
they are able to relate to it online too. This is very conventional of all
magazines as the majority of magazines want to connect with their younger
audience on this deeper level and aswell as this, being part of social networks
online allows the magazine to be shared around quicker. This helps to portray
my magazine as more aware of the zeitgeist (spirit of the age). Furthermore,
what else is very conventional about my contents page as it includes headlines
for each contents list, making it clear to the reader, which is what many
R&B magazines do. Infact, I created these headlines due to inspiration from
an R&B/hip-hop magazine called Vibe, so this just represents this in
itself.
Finally, the
double page spreads which I have used to conform to the house colours which I
have earlier discussed in order to create a brand image and reinforce the
relationship with the audience. Furthermore, on the first page I used this as
an introductory page which is very conventional of an R&B magazine as it
briefs and introduces the reader to the article about to be presented. However,
what is unconventional about my magazine is that I created three purple boxes
each consisting of things my artist has to say about other artists. I thought
of this idea myself and have never seen it in any other magazine, highlighting
that it is unique and unconventional to any other R&B magazine. Aswell as
this, I also created a quirky black and white grid of different close up shots
of my model making ‘silly’ faces. Usually, R&B models are quite posed and
serious, but my model goes against this convention in these facial shots,
presenting a completely different fun side of the R&B genre.
There are four
main magazine publishers within the media industry, all of which brand very
successful magazines. The first is Bauer Media, which is Europe’s largest
privately owned publishing group and it’s based in Germany. It publishes over
300 magazines within 15 different countries as well as TV, online and on radio
stations. Bauer Media’s aim is to focus on ‘personal relationships’ with
engaged readers and listeners, being one main intention of the magazine. But,
because Bauer Media already publish Kerrang and Q magazine, it could create a
tough competition between them and my own as both magazines are very
well-known, so this could potentially bring down the overall sales of my own
and therefore it wouldn’t be as successful as it could be.
The
next is IPC Media, which is currently the UK’s leading consumer magazine
publisher. This publisher engages with two thirds of UK women and 42% of men.
They publish a range of genres whether it be TV, music or fashion, unlike some
other companies. Also, they create content for not just magazines but mobile,
online, tablets and events. Similarly to Bauer Media, IPC publish NME which is
another music magazine. As the layout of the NME magazine is fairly similar to
my music magazine, again, this would create a competition and therefore it
would be unwise for me to choose this company as my magazine’s publisher as it
would decrease the popularity and buyers of my magazine.
Conde Nast is another very
successful publisher which publishes brands worldwide. It produces 18 consumer
magazines, over 50 apps for mobile and tablet devices and 27 websites. Conde
Nast’s publications are very audience-specific, mainly aimed at adult women.
They appear extremely stylish and classy. Overall, I don’t think my magazine
would fit into this category of style aswell as the language, because my
magazine is younger with a different social class of language, therefore it
wouldn’t appeal to the audiences of this publisher’s brands which potentially
could affect the sales of my magazine massively.
The National Magazine Company is
another media industry publisher. It is very successful, being one of the UK’s
leading companies along with having 20 magazine brands. This company also has
many digital websites: menshealth.co.uk, allaboutsoap.co.uk and
runnersworld.co.uk. I have concluded that this publisher would be best suited
for my magazine as currently it doesn’t publish any music magazine, therefore
my music magazine would appear different and unique to anything they have
published before, therefore attracting more readers and buyers. I want to
introduce new topics and a new genre to unfamiliar audiences to attract new
buyers and give my magazine a different feel to it, standing out from the rest.
Aswell as this, The National Magazine Company publish equal number of websites
as well, so this means that my magazine could be online as well as print. This
would work out well as my young target audience use technology/the internet as
a very important aspect of their lives so this would work successfully. The
National Magazine Company would like my magazine because its large target
audience allows more people to not only read my magazine, but if it is
published by this company then buyers may look into The National Magazine
Company’s other magazines they have distributed, meaning that their other
magazines’ popularity and buyers increase rapidly.
I wouldn’t want my magazine to be
published by a company called Miller Publishing for example because I have used
a magazine called Vibe which this company published, as a style model for my
own magazine. This means that there would be a lot of competition between my
magazine and Vibe not only because they are of a similar appearance, but
because they are of a similar genre too. This would mean that my magazine would
have no chance to stand out, therefore decreasing its popularity and buyers.
Throughout my
magazine, I needed to make sure I included many aspects that would of fitted in
with and attracted my target audience. To make sure my magazine would sell, I
included crucial features that would clearly have a high demand from my target
audience which are males and females (but mainly females) between the ages of
16-30.
Firstly, the
fact that the majority of participants voted for R&B as their most
favourite type of music has really reinforced my reasoning for wanting to make
my magazine’s genre R&B. These results reassured me that I have definitely
made the right decision in picking this genre. Also, the top-voted name suggested for my
magazine through my questionnaire was ‘The Game’ and the least-voted was ‘Rhythm’.
This suggests to me that my target audience like to see things that sound more
exciting and suggestive (e.g the name ‘The Game’ which is inviting and fun)
rather than going for things that seem less daring and more plain and
predictable (e.g the name ‘Rhythm’) reinforcing my reason for making my magazine’s
name ‘The Game’. I knew from these results that my choice of making this its
name would instantly attract my target audience to its fullest.
The first method
in order to attract my target audience would be through my front cover. This is
the first thing that they see and it is highly crucial that it stands out to
them amongst many other magazines on the shelf. I made my front cover stand out
by using a mid-shot of my model which brings attention mainly to her face and
body since she is closer up to the lense. As you can see, my model’s body
language is welcoming with her arms open behind her head. This will attract the
audience as it may make them feel that the magazine offers a lot and that the
main artist is very inviting. Mise-en-scene-wise, the main artist of my front
cover uses direct eye contact with the camera lense creating a personal
connection and sense of equality between the artist and the reader which may
attract them as it may make them feel less daunted/intimidated by a successful
artist and instead feel as if they are ‘the same’, which is very luring. She is
also wearing bright red lipstick which I adjusted the colour of to make it
stand out more, and this use of makeup will make my model look feminine and
create a sex appeal with my male audience, perhaps as will the direct eye
contact, representing confidence that males are attracted to and females may
admire. Her curly, bouncy hair creates a flirtatious vibe and her colourful
floral crop-top is very casual which shows off part of her stomach. This will
attract my target audience as this clothing will create the impression of my
artist being relaxed which is what most teenagers like to be, and also casual,
again making my target audience feel as if they are ‘the same’ therefore
intriguing them. The floral pattern on her top makes my artist look very
feminine, attracting not only a male audience, but the female audience too.
Also, the fact that some of her stomach is showing may create a sex appeal for
my male audience as it looks quirky and confident. Also, I edited my model’s
skin on a program called Photoshop to remove any blemishes and give her skin an
appealing clear and smooth effect. I hoped this would attract my target
audience massively because some young females inspire to have good skin
beauty-wise, therefore intriguing them; and most males generally find clear
skin more attractive. Infront of the picture of my main artist, I put ‘exclusive
with..’ and then ‘CASSIE STARR’ in very large, black font to give it a bold
effect an instantly catch the audiences’ eyes as it stands out against the
pale, feminine colours of the model’s clothing
behind.
The fact that in my questionnaire I’d
received a majority vote towards my target audience preferring a chance to win
a freebie in my magazine portrayed that my audience would like to have a chance
at winning in a magazine. I don’t think posters are that popular anymore as
many teenagers resort to using technology to endure their pleasures so I
decided to use a ‘WIN! FREE SIGNED CIARA CD’ feature on my front cover because
CDs are something my audience can actually make use out of instead of just
chucking it in the bin. Moreover, due to the proliferation of new technology,
on one of my pages in my magazine I would alternatively give the option for my
audience to receive a free download of Ciara’s CD with a picture of the signed
CD included incase someone who doesn’t use CDs wins. This is because CDs are
quite dated now. However I think the use of a CD as a prize is still effective
because the winner can actually receive it and own it; - juxtaposed with an
ordinary download which anyone can perform online.
Aswell as this, on my top banner it
states “MOBO AWARDS & CONCERTS”. I’d concluded that from my questionnaire
data concert and gig reviews were the second most wanted feature on a magazine,
so I used this to my advantage and made sure that a mentioning of concerts was
at the top of my magazine to attract my target audience instantly. Aswell as
that, Mobo awards are awards given to R&B and hip-hop artists, so I knew
that the mentioning of Mobo awards would be a lot more relevant to the R&B
genre than a mentioning of the Brit awards for example. On my bottom banner I
have ‘HOTTEST & LATEST R&B MUSIC’. I figured the adjectives ‘hottest’
and ‘latest’ would have a great luring effect on my target audience because it
will give the impression that my magazine is up-to-date and ‘in’ which is what
most young audiences aim for. Also, with my sell lines ‘BACK STAGE WITH..’, ‘TICKETS
TO SEE..’ and ‘PRIVATE GIG WITH..’ along with the artists’ names, I have made
sure to include Beyonce’s name there. This is because, when analysing my
questionnaire’s results I discovered that Beyonce was majority voted by participants
as one of their top three most favourite artists. Therefore, I took advantage
of this, knowing that people liked her most, so I made sure I included Beyonce
here to catch the reader’s attention instantly. Lastly, my house colours are
black, white and purple. My questionnaire’s results showed that my target
audience would most prefer a magazine with the house colours of turquoise and
pink, with the second vote going to a draw between purple & black and black
& blue. I wanted my magazine to look classy and basic so that it wasn’t too
complex for the reader to look at and its appearance seemed worth the money, so
the colour mixture of turquoise & pink seemed inappropriate and tacky for
this. Furthermore, because my magazine’s target audience is male & females
but mainly towards females, I felt that the house colours black & blue were
too masculine and harsh for the magazine I was making. Therefore, I chose
purple, black and white to give a classy, simple but bold effect to attract the
audience.
On my contents
page, I used a bold black script font for my headlines ‘on the cover’, ‘regulars’
and ‘exclusives’ to represent classiness which is quite feminine, attracting my
female audience. Then I used a purple colour for the subject headline and a
black font for the brief description of the subject afterwards. This therefore
makes everything look easier and clearer to read so that the audience are not
put off by any complexity and difficulty to navigate around my contents page. I
think I used a good variation of images too, because I used another picture of
my main artist in different clothing which was a leapord-print furr jacket with
a denim shirt and burgundy red skater-skirt, representing quirkiness which is
different and will catch the reader’s eye, along with other photos such as a
picture of a male doing a casual pose which creates sex appeal for the females but
also equality for the males. Next to each of these images I have included page
numbers so that the reader can easily navigate to the page they want to. Lastly,
I have made sure to include a social networking feature in a purple box
including The Game’s twitter username with the Twitter icon which will
instantly grab my target audience’s attention because many young people use
this social networking site nowadays so they will be familiar with it, aswell
as The Game’s app with a realistic photo of an iPhone with The Game’s front
cover on it, and also a subscription feature which includes three different
versions of my magazine front cover, attracting the audience because it
portrays to them that my magazine has a lot of different things to offer for
them and that they won’t just be subscribing to the same magazine every month.
Aswell as this, the competitions/quizzes feature I have also included will attract
my audience as they are at the age where most of the teenagers are fun,
adventurous and competitive, wanting to play games and win things.
On the first
page of my double page spread the quote I have used states ‘this is just the
beginning’. I used this quote as the headline of my artist’s interview because
it highlights excitement, making the audience wonder what else the artist has
in store for them which is particularly intriguing. My questionnaire portrayed
to me that an interview is the most-wanted feature when purchasing a magazine,
so I took full advantage of this. On the second page of my double page spread I
used an image of my ‘artist’ singing into a microphone therefore attracting the
audience because it portrays that she is a performer and doesn’t just sit back
and not take action in her career. Futhermore, I have used a black and white
grid of different close ups of my model’s facial expressions, representing that
she is quirky and has a fun and easy-going side to her too which will be very
alluring to my audience. Aswell as this, I have used a ‘CASSIE’S TWEETS’
feature at the top of my double page spread so that the audience know she is
active on social networking sites, just like them. Lastly, there is also a
feature at the bottom of the page where my artist is ‘talking about other
artists’, and since my questionnaire showed me that my target audience
appreciate gossip, I gathered that this feature would be much appreciated to
the audience.
The last aspect
that would attract my audience is the Uses and Gratifications Theory. This
theory consists of four reasons which tell us why people use the media. These
are: personal relationships. This is where the magazine would create a ‘word
and mouth’ effect where friends or family would discuss the magazine, creating
their own relationship with another as it is something they both have interest
in. Personal identity, which is where if someone becomes a frequent reader of
my magazine, it would become something that is personal to them and something
that makes them who they are. Then we’ve got entertainment, where my magazine
would be entertaining to read and something that the reader would enjoy doing.
Therefore this would persuade them into buying my magazine each week. Then,
lastly we have information. This is where the main reason why people buy my
magazine is to be informed of what is going on in the R&B music industry.
My magazine would inform them of upcoming artists, personal details, album
reviews etc..
This is question 7 of my evaluation, going into details of how my skills have developed over the time period from completing my preliminary task at the start of Media studies to completing my music magazine. As you can see, I have created a video of me performing my essay through recording multiple videos of me (using my iPhone) reading out each paragraph and then put these together as a final movie on an app called 'Splice' and then uploaded this movie to YouTube. I then embedded the code of the video from YouTube and pasted it onto the HTML of this text here. As you can see, below this video I have also provided a transcript of my video too which is in Word document format presenting my essay in text along with pictures and examples.
Editing a photo of my model on Photoshop which will be used on my front cover
This is a screengrab video I created through a program called Camstasia Studio which captures anything I do on my computer. It basically shows everything I do to edit a photo of my model which I am going to use for my front cover, so this is anything from fixing blemishes on her skin to give it a smooth, clear airbrushed look which will be more appealing to my target audience to adjusting contrast and colour to make it brighter and stand out to the audience. I have created this video to allow the audience to view how I edited my model step-by-step.
Front Cover: The final front cover of my R&B music magazine 'The Game' has a consistent colour scheme using the same purple, black and white house colours which contrast well with my model's skin tone in the main image, aswell as her bright red lipstick. Furthermore, I think these colours also juxtapose well with her pink, yellow and green floral crop-top which adds a quirky feel to my front page. I feel the use of the three main colours gives my magazine a basic, simple look which will be more appealing to the audience as too many colours will come across as too complex and confusing for the reader, therefore perhaps putting them off. I chose the colour white for my masthead as I feel the colour is refreshing for the audience to look at, plus I used a Bevel Emboss and Drop Shadow effect on it so that it stands out from the main image and is the first feature to grab the reader's attention. Furthermore, I felt it was important to have 'CASSIE STARR' my main artist's name in large capital letters as she is the most important artist in the issue. For my sell lines I used the font Century Gothic which is a basic font, taking away any complexity and too much variety from the page. As you can see, my sell lines "backstage with.. Rihanna", "tickets to see.. Miguel" and "private gig with.. Beyonce" follow a simple almost repetitive 'list-of-three' effect which is simple for the reader to look at and understand, therefore standing out at them more. This will create the effect that being able to attend these gigs, backstage passes and getting tickets for concerts is also easy which is exactly what my teenage target audience will want. I used the font Georgia with a black colour and Drop Shadow on the artists' names so that it grabs the reader's attention immediately and they instantly know what the selline is about. As you can see, I've also added a "+ top 10 R&B songs right now" selline where the number '10' is a white font in a purple box so that the reader's attention is brought to this instantly making them wonder what the number is about, along with the plus sign making the reader feel as if they receive extra for what they have paid for. Plus a plus symbol is simple and easy for anyone to immediately understand. Aswell as this, I felt it was crucial to include a feature about the reader being able to win a prize which will again make them feel as if they are getting more than what they 'bargained for'. I included this aspect in a purple circle shape which is different to the rest of the aspects on my magazine therefore making it stand out. Furthermore as you can see I have also included purple banners at the top and bottom of the front cover with a Bevel Emboss effect on them making them seem '3D', with them both mentioning awards, concerts and 'hottest and latest R&B music' on them. The effect of this will be that the reader will feel a lot of opportunities and information is included in the magazine and that it is worthy of the money they have paid for it. Finally, I feel that the body language of the model I used was important because I wanted her to dominate the page and represent my genre well. The fact that my model is using direct eye contact with the camera lense represents that she is not shy and is welcoming, creating a feeling of personal connection between the artist and the reader, making the reader feel as if they are 'the same'. This will lure the reader in more to read the magazine. My model's stance is very basic; - her arms up behind her head portrays that she is welcoming and confident with nothing to hide. Aswell as this, her curly, bouncy hair, bright red lipstick and colourful floral crop top suggests that my model is fun, flirty, unique and confident aswell as very feminine. This could both appeal to females and males as females may inspire to look like her and males may have a sex appeal for her. The crop top represents a calm, relaxed and casual nature about her which is very inviting for my teenage target audience as this is what many teenagers like to do, and they may feel she is just like them; - not too restricted with some of the flesh of her stomach showing. Contents page The contents page of my final magazine again follows the house colours of purple, black and white. Each headline "on the cover", "regulars" and "exclusives" is in a black bold script font to give my contents page a classy, mature and perhaps quite feminine look. I think this would be very effective towards the female audiences. For each topic name next to the page numbers, I have put it in purple capitals so that it stands out clearly to the reader from its black lower-case description below. This means that the reader can easily navigate themselves around the magazine. I have used an editor's note which is a typical convention of an R&B magazine, and introduced the reader to it. I have also made sure to use 5 effective images, one of which is of a male in order to create a sex appeal and attract female audiences but to also make sure that the male audiences feel they can relate and that the magazine isn't 'too feminine'. Lastly, I have made sure to include all social networks and contact details in a purple box such as Twitter, Subscription and a The Game iPhone app which will further attract my young target audience as they are more interested in going on these social networking sites on the internet and using technology to communicate and get involved. Furthermore, advertising my magazine's technology distribution means that my target audience can get involved with the magazine in their spare time too and more easily share it around with their friends.
Double page spread, page one On page one of my double page spread I used a large mid shot of my model with a leapord-print furr coat on to create a quirky look which will intrigue the audience, and then used a quote stating "this is just the beginning" in a large black font with the words "this is" and "beginning" highlighted in purple. I decided that this quote would really stand out to the audience because it suggests that my main artist has a lot more in store for them which is exciting and intriguing for the reader. Below this, some of the article starts here.
Double page spread, last page On the last page of my double page spread, the rest of my article is placed here. Then, on the right hand side I have placed a black and white 3x3 grid of close up shots of my model pulling different facial expressions. I decided this would have a good effect because it would show the reader that my model has many different sides of her and that she can be silly too, which will stand out to my target audience in particular as they are still young and are able to be silly too, so they can relate and will feel as if they are "the same". Also, below this a bit more to the right hand side I have used a near-long-shot of my model singing into a microphone. This shows an image to the reader of the artist actually performim
Today I continued working on my music magazine. I finished creating the three boxes and putting them in the blank space on my double page spread, then underneath this was a gap aswell so I had to think of something to fill these. Suddenly I had an idea, and I decided to put all the social networking sites on there for The Game, so that my target audience could get involved online, too. However, before I managed to start this, I was presented with an AS Media checklist, meaning I had to navigate through my blog and check off everything on the PDF checklist that I had done. Next to each check I also had to select the quality of the piece of work, what document it is presented on and select whether it's completed or a draft file. I found I had completed a lot on my blog and was able to select most of them as 'proficient' which was satisfying. However, the checklist made me realise that a lot of my documents are presented on Powerpoint still, and even though I attempted to change this by transforming several of the files on my blog from Powerpoint to Prezi for example, there are still many that are presented through Powerpoint so I need to change this in order to have a wider variation of presentation techniques on my blog. Also, the checklist made me realise that there are two things I haven't done: behind the scenes document and the chosen images document. So I will work on the Chosen Images document over the weekend.
Above, as you can see is a screenshot of the work I completed on my magazine today. I have completed the purple boxes I spoke about yesterday in my project log and have now also added social networking details below so that my target audience are able to get involved with the magazine online too. This is a close up screenshot of what I did with the three subscription magazines at the bottom of my double page spread. I had to change the house colour of my magazine three times in order to do this, screen shot these, open them in Photoshop and drag them into InDesign, cropping them into the right size and lining them up together by the 'subscription' part at the bottom of my double page spread. I did this because I knew it would allow the audience to realise that there are many more monthly magazines to come from The Game and that they are all different, hopefully increasing audience's subscription to my magazine.
Today I continued to work on my music magazine, continuing to fill in the space at the bottom of my magazine with 3 purple text boxes consisting of my model talking about other artists. It took quite a while to do this and since my magazine is my priority whilst at school because I don't have InDesign at home, when I got home I continued working on my evaluation question. I found it hard to plan out what I was going to write but once I had figured this out the evaluation was quite easy to do.
Above as you can see is two screen shots showing the work I had been making on my magazine today. I had added these three purple boxes and had finished them by the end of the lesson.
As you can see, above is two screen shots of the work I have done on the question 7 evaluation so far.
Transcript: In my lesson today I just continued to work on my magazine. I especially worked on the last page of my double page spread which was where I had an empty space that I needed to fill in, so I went over to talk to Mr Fisher and I asked him what I should do to to fill in this space as I wasn't entirely sure what to do with it and he showed me someone else's magazine and told me that I should fill in some boxes and say that my artist was talking about other artists and things like this just to get the audience involved as most teenagers like the gossip aspect. So today I just started on these boxes and filled them in with text. Then, me, Siobhan and Rag'e did some audience feedback videos in the office room in our Media room and we just said the good and bad things about eachother's magazines and we videod this and put it up on YouTube. So this should be up on my blog soon. I think this audience feedback really helped me because it made me realise the good and bad things about my magazine and how I can furthermore improve to make sure that it's up to scratch and the best it can be for the final deadline.
Transcript: In my lesson today I continued to work on my magazine and improve my blog. So this was anything from filling in gaps to adjusting my blog, making sure that it's up to scratch and that I wasn't missing out on any parts I needed to. I also spoke to my teacher and we went over everything that I'd done on my blog and anything that I might of been missing out on and she ticked off everything I'd completed which was quite a lot so really I haven't got a lot left to do on my blog; - apart from the fact that I forgot to do my Time Lapse for my photoshoot and now this is not very do-able because I've already completed the photoshoot. This is really the only thing I haven't completed. On my magazine today I just worked on improving it and filling in any spaces. Also, I've been working on my evaluation, so any evaluations I have typed down normally, I have now converted them into presentation techniques using voice-overs etc.. One easy thing I found about this lesson was that I knew what I wanted to do with my magazine so continuing on working on it wasn't a problem for me. But working on my blog is quite hard because I didn't really know what parts I should be improving on, for example I wasn't sure if I should of been debriefing/adding text to every single document on my blog or whether I just had to do this for powerpoints etc.. However with some help from my peers I was able to work on this in the end.
This is a video of me and my peer Siobhan analysing eachother's magazines, stating the things we like about them. We discussed the strengths and improvements we could make on everything about eachother's magazines from the front cover to the double page spread. The feedback Siobhan gave me really helped me because it gave me further confidence on my magazine but also allowed me to realise some things I needed to change about my magazine to make it look more professional and up to its full potential. The audience feedback was created with Siobhan as she is part of my target audience, so I thought it would be appropriate to use someone within this age. I definitely felt I handed my final piece in at a higher standard thanks to some of the beneficial feedback I'd recieved from this audience feedback, so overall I felt it really helped.
Transcript: today because it's half term this week I haven't been able to access the programs that we've usually been able to use at school to develop our magazines such as InDesign and Photoshop. So instead I've just been working on my blog and making sure that it looks a lot better. I've been especially changing my presentation techniques, changing the programs that I've used for documents. So for example for my diaries I've mostly just been writing my production logs down on text and putting them on my blog, but now I've transferred a lot of them onto different documents now such as Word document, a Powerpoint, Prezi etc just so that there's a lot of variation of the programs I've used to make my diaries. Also I've just been changing all of my presentation techniques because before everything was made on Powerpoint on my blog, but now I've changed some documents to Prezis, Adobe Premiere Pro videos, Word documents, Edexcel etc.. Just so that there is a lot of variation of programs used. Aswell as this I've made two videos of me giving a tutorial of how I've edited two photos on Photoshop, and I've given a voice-over to these so I uploaded these to YouTube and added them to my blog. So today I just improved on my blog really and I will continue to do this throughout the week to make it look a lot more appealing to the audience as I cannot work on my magazine.
Transcript:
In today's lesson I worked on some of my magazine to make it look more professional, so I especially focused on my double page spread, for example I used the text wrap tool just to import images and fill in any spaces or gaps that were left. And I also just wanted to make sure that my blog has a variation of different presentation techniques so I re-did any of my powerpoints and changed them to Prezis etc just so that there was different types of presentation methods on my blog. Also I changed my contact sheet into an online flip book just so that it was a lot funner and easier to look at and there was a lot of unique different things on my blog. One easy thing I found about this lesson was that I already knew what I wanted to do with my magazine so it wasn't hard for me to grasp the concept of what I wanted to do for my double page spread. One difficult thing I found about this lesson was probably just trying to work out the flip book and how it worked but in the end I grasped the concept of that.
This is my evaluation question about the technologies I have learned how to use since creating my magazine. This includes me elaborating on programs such as Photoshop, InDesign, Voki, camera and photoshoot equipment and Blogger.
In my lesson today I changed some of the font on my double page spread to font size 11 so that it looked more professional and I changed the layout of my contents page and moved some of the text onto the other page so that there were less spaces and I filled these up with pictures etc. So I just worked to make my magazine look more professional and I also worked on some more of my coursework for my evaluation.
Question 2 evaluation: "How does your media product represent particular social groups?" evaluation question, made with Adobe Premiere Pro & a voice-over
This is one of my evaluation questions I created with Adobe Premiere Pro which I downloaded a trail version of at home and then recorded myself doing a voice-over for all of the text involved, just to make it seem more presentable.
At first I just made my evaluation question with Powerpoint, but then I figured I wanted to use more of a variety of programs with my evaluation questions to make it more interesting, so I print screened each slide I'd made and imported these one by one onto Adobe Premiere Pro. Then, after recording my voice-over for the movie, I imported this audio file and cut it up carefully so that unneeded parts were deleted and that they were measured up correctly with the right slides for the right amount of time. Then, I watched over the movie one last time and once I was satisfied I finally exported it and published it to YouTube. I'm glad I used Adobe Premiere Pro as this furthers my knowledge and skills of different programs, not just Powerpoint or Windows Movie Maker.
Transcript:
The type of magazine I was looking to create was of a similar genre and style to the magazine ‘Vibe’ but with more of a focus on R&B music that is not always shown as mainstream nowadays. I lead my magazine down this route as I find that mainstream music is too popular nowadays and that R&B music is underrated and not played enough. I gathered that this is a market that can appeal to many people’s needs as the market is unique and may satisfy those who agree that R&B is not played enough nowadays. My magazine will also include the latest album and gig reviews which will include the type of artists that are going to be expected in my magazine by the audience.
Firstly, the house colours of my magazine are purple, black and white. I believe that the colour purple holds not only connotations of royalty, but it gives the magazine a quirky feel too. Aswell as this, the black and white colours give my magazine a smart and sophisticated look to it, too. This clearly relates to the social group as these are characteristics that my audience are most likely to have as a person. However, the colour black also hints that my audience are mature, however the colour white suggests that they are still young innocent, representing the age I have chosen in my target audience and how it varies. The readers will also choose to read my magazine out of their interest in R&B music, therefore the use of loud, bold fonts will instantly stand out and appeal to them as perhaps they are likely to be different from the crowd and unique, which is exactly what my magazine is. I chose these house colours over colours such as yellow and pink because I feel that darker colours represent a clearer view of the music genre my magazine is about.
Next, on my front cover my model makes direct eye conact with the camera lens and looks confident with her arms crossed behind her head. The camera placement is at eye level with the model, suggesting that both the model and the magazine are friendly and approachable, and that they are the ‘same’ as the readers. Furthermore, my model is of a similar age to the reader as my target audience is young, so my model represented this successfully therefore more appealing to the reader. Aswell as this, my model’s confident pose and firm eye contact with the camera, plus a colourful floral top represents confidence and strength. Aswell as this, her curly bouncy hair could portray joy and fun, and all of these features may lure the reader in and perhaps make them look up to her as a strong R&B role model, wanting to be like her. Aswell as this, I did make sure that my model’s clothing was common for the R&B genre as the social groups viewing my magazine are more than likely going to want to look to my magazine for fashion tips and clues on what to wear.
Because my magazine is aimed at people within the social classes of B, C1 and C2 I have made sure to use simple English so that the reader is able to understand and read through it swiftly. Furthermore, I have made sure that my magazine is written fun and witty throughout so that it has a positive tone and the reader knows that the magazine has a good, positive attitude. However I have made sure its tone isn’t too laid-back and sarcastic or else it may come across as negative and mocking, therefore putting the reader off.
This is an evaluation question which elaborates on how I have presented my model and how this represents particular social groups.
Tutorial of me using Photoshop to edit a photo of my model for my R&B magazine.
This is a video showing me using Photoshop to edit a photo of my model for my R&B music magazine. I go through the editing of my model's skin such as fixing any blemishes/spots, aswell as blurring out the skin slightly to give it a more smooth and clear effect, plus making facial features such as the eyes and lips brighter and bolder with more contrast, aswell as adjusting the picture making the contrast and brightness higher, aswell as the colour. At the end of the video I present a before and after photo just to represent the differences within the picture after editing it.
I used 'CamStudio' to record me editing the photo, and then put this into a program named 'Windows Movie Maker' to start cutting up the clip, removing any unimportant parts and making sure some parts of the clip are fastened up (the 'fixing blemishes' part) as it is too long. Then, I watched through the whole clip and recorded myself doing a voice-over for this at the same time on my phone, uploaded this to my computer and added the audio clip onto my movie. After making sure the movie was complete and ready, I published it onto YouTube.
This is a video of my peer Rag'e giving me feedback on my magazine. This included the strengths and the improvements I needed to make. The feedback he gave me really helped me because it made me realise the good things about my magazine but also the features I should improve on to make sure that it is the best it can be and up to full professional potential.
I will make sure the house colours are purple, black and white.
Contents page
Double page spread
The sketches in which I have designed here are my initial ideas of how I wanted my magazine to look; - layout, text, etc.. I was inspired by some other magazines I'd already seen such as Vibe magazine and more, so I used some ideas from these. I wasn't sure if I was definitely going to use all of these ideas I'd put down on paper, but I really benefitted from it because it meant that I had an idea of where abouts I was going with my magazine and how it would look, saving time in the process.
Today I continued working on my magazine. I worked to make sure it looked more professional and took off drop shadows etc.. I haven't been in recently so I made sure to catch up on any work I've missed out on. I'm planning on coming in on my free periods to finish off my magazine and start writing my evaluation. A difficult thing I found about this lesson was knowing where abouts to put certain features on my magazine in order to make it look professional enough and organised. However, a good thing I found about this lesson is that I was really starting to get a feel of what exactly I aim to change and do on my magazine to make it look better.
This powerpoint presented what the typical reader of my magazine would be like, as in their name, age, occupation, likes& dislikes, reasons for reading R&B magazines and their all time favourite artist. All of this personal information helps indicate exactly and specifically what sort of target audience I am aiming my magazine at and how to develop my ideas for features in my magazine etc to suit this target audience..
This is a powerpoint presenting what the target audience for my magazine will be and what sort of person will read my magazine. This inclues every detail from social class, hobbies, appearance, interests, likes, dislikes and more.
This is a powerpoint which presents my sell lines and contents ideas for my magazine. This planning has helped me a lot because it has prepared me for the sort of features I should include in my magazine and how I should word these.
This powerpoint presents the proposal of my magazine. So this planning includes everything from the genre of my magazine, the frequency, possible content/stories, mood, unique features, target audience, key images, main features, institution and representation.
This is a powerpoint which presents the location ideas I have for my magazine. So this is such as outside like graffiti walls and also naturistic locations, professional canvas photos with photoshoot equipment and more. I have also explained what will be the effects of using these locations too.
Transcript: Today we were taught how to write our magazine evaluation and we marked some other student examples of questions from the evaluation. This helped me a lot because it allowed me to establish how I should and shouldn't write, that I should include a lot of good Media terminology and how to make sure that my evaluation is the best it could possibly be. Then, we were set a task to begin writing our evaluation answer to question 2 and finish this off for homework. I used my initiative and used other resources to help me write my answer, such as using www.12924haydong321.blogspot.co.uk and I used other students' answers to inspire me. I am planning on completing this question by later on today. The difficult thing I found about this lesson was organising everything I was going to write into one paragraph, and also the marking was hard too as I wasn't particularly sure if I'd marked right and couldn't be sure that my judgements on them were correct so I was quite uncertain. However overall it was a successul lesson as it gave me a good indication on what to write for my magazine evaluation.
Today I continued to work on my magazine. I decided to make many changes to it going accordingly with the feedback I'd received on it previously, such as adjusting font, changing my front cover banner, reorganizing the layout of all the pages, etc.. The hard part I found about this work was actually concentrating and getting along with what I needed to do without allowing anything to distract me. However, I had written feedback notes that I was able to read from as I went along so the good part about this lesson was that I was on track with what I needed to do and how I needed to improve on my magazine. Half way through the lesson, my teacher called me up to go through some of my blog work with me to make sure that I was up to date. I had missed quite a lot of lessons due to illness so I'm making sure to catch up with anything I've missed out on over the past several days.
