Name : Connor Wood

Candidate Number : 3115Centre : Aquinas College

As Media StudiesOCR G321: Foundation Portfolio

Q1)Who would be the audience for your media product?

Who is it aimed at? My magazine is similar to Q magazine

and Mojo, as it is aimed at people in their 16-25 and the genre is classic rock. I thought this would be successful as my magazine is aimed at a younger audience than typical classic rock magazines and will have a number of new bands that fit the taste of my target audience. It is aimed at younger people (16-25) because of this.

Mood Board + Spider Diagram

Target Audience

Men

Aged 16-30

Like Classic Rock

Likes bands like pink Floyd

and led zeppelin

Read similar

magazines like Q

and Mojo

More Audience My magazine is aimed at a gap in the

market that is younger people, 16-25 who enjoy listening to classic rock music. As Typical listener of this genre would be someone a bit older, 30s-40s. My magazine aims to take both of these target audiences and combine them together with one magazine. In my opinion there is a potential gap in the market as there are no classic rock magazines aimed at people younger than 30.

Defining Primary Audience My primary audience would be males from quite a

young age range from 16-25. This is different to magazines such as Q and Mojo as they both have older primary audiences. The younger audience for my magazine would dress like the classic rock stars in the magazine, and the older readers would replicate the fashion they wore when they were that age. My primary audience would be interested in bands such as “Led Zeppelin”, “Black Sabbath” and “Pink Floyd”. These bands are very influential in the world of classic rock and most younger readers will have discovered these bands through old Vinyl's and CDs, this will help the readers feel as if they are breaking the mould.

Defining Secondary Audience My secondary audience would be the older age

range of people aged 30-40. This is typically a classic rock magazines primary audience, but I have found a gap in the market as no classic rock magazines are aimed at the younger audience of 16-25. These older readers like to think they are still young and the music will be reminiscent of their teenage days when they would listen to these bands and music. This would provide a good feeling around the older readers of the magazine as they would enjoy feeling younger and listening to music that made them feel nostalgic.

Q2)How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Social Groups:Clothing The Cover star I have used is supposed to

summarise the sort of social groups that I am addressing. For example the choice of guitar, this make and model of guitar were previously made and sold in the 70s and 80s and has quite a classic look to it. The combination of a suit jacket and a hoodie is quite a smart/casual clothing combination and this is what stars from the 70s and 80s used to wear and this is what my target audience will wear themselves. My cover star is what I imagine to be a stylish icon for my target audience.

Social Groups: Stance + Expression My cover star is standing in quite a

relaxed and rebellious stance as he has his hands in his pockets, hood up and is leaning against a wall. The Expression on the stars face is also portraying a look that he doesn’t care and his slouched body language emphasises this. The stars stance and expression are contrasting to his quite classy suit jacket and smart t-shirt.

Similar Artists

My cover star is trying to represent a typical classic rocker who has quite a retro and smart/casual look about him/her.

Similar Artists and icons are people like: Matt Bellamy, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van

Halen and Simon Neil

Why? My cover star is wearing a suit jacket and hoodie

as they contrast against each other as a suit jacket is very formal and the hoodie is very casual, most rock stars try and achieve this smart casual look and so do the readers and target audience. My cover star has achieved quite a smart/casual “I don’t care” sort of attitude. This is due to the stance of him being slouched against the wall, and having quite a straight face. The red jeans also suggest that he is quite different and likes to stand out and enjoys being the centre of attention, which also adds to his quite a “Bad Attitude”.

Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your product?

Bauer Media To distribute my magazine I would use a publishing

company like “Bauer”. I would use “Bauer” as they are already a well established distribution service and they have been doing so for a very long time. They also distribute Kerrang, Q and Mojo, which are all similar to my magazine so this would compliment my products. Bauer also own a 50% share in the British TV company and music show “The Box”. This is perfect for my magazine as “The Box” could be used as a platform to promote my magazine to my target audience. Another advertising opportunity is that Bauer also own Kerrang TV and Radio. Bauer Also owns 4Music and Planet Rock, which is the perfect place to advertise my magazine.

http://www.bauermedia.com/

How To Find The Product As we are currently in the age of social media and

technology, my magazine would use social networking sites like twitter and Facebook to keep fans updated. I could also use Instagram to upload user generated content and create a community around the magazine, which helps give the magazine a good reputation and following.

I would also offer a subscription off that overall achieved a saving for the customer and can come with a free piece of merchandise, which also benefits the magazine as it is free promotion if people begin wearing the magazines T-Shirts.

As Previously stated there would also be adverts on TV channels owned by Bauer.

Promotion To help promotion BDG could have its

own… App T-Shirts Festival Stage Mug Wristband Special compilation CDs and Albums Adverts On Kerrang TV and Radio and The

Box

BDG Magazine

BDGBDG

Promotion

Q4) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

My Media product uses a lot of the conventions of a typical magazine in its sub-genre (Classic Rock). I found out what the typical reader would like by doing audience research. I have used typical conventions of magazines like “Q” and “Mojo” which are both in the same sub-genre as my magazine is. My magazine features a very large amount of the standard conventions of music magazines, for example, a short and snappy title, which can appear in a large font on the front cover of the magazine, which provides my magazine with a strong brand identity. My Magazine also develops and varies a bit from the usual conventions of a classic rock magazine, for example on a classic rock magazine, they wouldn’t usually have a new artist as a cover star, but my magazine features a new artist that has the produces music that the typical reader of my magazine would enjoy listening to. I have made this decision based on the audience research that I had taken out to try and achieve typical conventions and musical tastes of the audience for my magazine.

Front Cover Conventions And Comparison My Magazines front cover uses a lot of the conventions of a typical

magazine in its sub-genre. On this slide I have picked out the main conventions of a music magazine, and shown where they are featured in my magazine, and a popular magazine that is in the same sub-genre.

As you can see my magazine uses lots of the conventions of a magazine within the same sub-genre. I Think that it also develops the conventions as typical magazines would have a well known cover star, but in my magazine I am introducing a totally new cover star to an audience. I have done this because the star is supposed to sound like the typical sort of music that a reader would like/enjoy listening to.

Contents Page Conventions And Comparison Similarly to my front cover, my contents page also uses a lot of the

typical conventions of a Classic rock magazine, like “Q” or “Mojo”.

My magazines contents page uses lots of conventions of a classic rock music magazine, for example a very bold logo in the header, giving it a strong brand identity, it also features specific segments in the contents column, which is a feature of most magazines, all of these are given some anchoring text to provide a brief description on what the article is about and give a page number for reference.

Double Page Spread Conventions And Comparison My magazine also follows the typical conventions of a classic rock

magazines double page spread. I have compared my magazines double page spread to “Mojo’s” double page spread on Neil Young.

My magazines double page spread shares a lot of the same conventions with this magazine, but I have developed those conventions by adding a box of text in the middle of the article to break up the text, as if this wasn’t here, the reader may be put off by a very large wall of text. This small text box also provides the reader with some extra information about the star. Both magazines have a very distinct and quite dark colour scheme. Something my magazine has that “Mojo” magazine doesn’t have is a large header across the top of the page referencing the magazine it is from, and giving a band name and tag line. I have decided to do this on my magazine as my star may not be as recognisable as someone in “Mojo”.

Text introducing the reader to the article

Very large single letter to break up the text

Large Pull Quote, Bringing The Readers Attention

Very Large image of the cover star, filling up a whole page and not crossing over onto the other page (Same with the text)

Small piece of text anchoring the image to the article.

Text introducing the reader to the article

Very large single letter

Large Pull Quote, Drawing The Readers Attention

Piece of information regarding the star, used to break up the text

Very Large image of the cover star, filling up a whole page and not crossing over onto the other page (Same with the text)

Q5) How did you attract/address your audience?

Front Cover

Gender, Age And Genre Gender:

My magazine is aimed primarily at males, as it is mostly males that listen to classic rock music, although a small majority of my audience could be females.

Age:

For my magazine I have decided to target quite a large age range, from about 16-35. I have chosen a younger age range as there is a gap in the market as not many classic rock magazines are aimed at a younger audience.

Genre:

My Magazine falls under the ‘classic rock’ genre. This is portrayed by the clothes and stance of the cover star, it is also portrayed by the artists that the articles are about.

Colour Scheme And Fonts For a font I decided to use a font that is

quite simple, looks good bold and is quite formal. The font I decided to use was “Copper Gate Gothic Bold”.

The colours I used in my colour scheme were Grey, White, Black and Red. All of these colours all work well together and compliment each other so that the bold red and black text stands out.

Attracting Attention

To attract fans of classic rock I have summarised the contents of the issue in the header, the words “Classic Rock” instantly tell the reader what the magazine is about.

I have also added a pug that is advertising a chance to win a classic guitar, I chose to use this guitar as it has very significant links and connotations with classic rock music, so fans of classic rock will remember and like to win one.

The use of a bold and the colour red help to attract the potential reader to articles they may want to read about. The red text also fits with the colour scheme and stands out against the light grey/white background.

The masthead stands out as it is in a very large and bold font. This can help to create a strong brand identity so that wherever people see that large text they will think of the magazine.

Q6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Adobe Photoshop:Cover Star I have used Adobe Photoshop to help remove the

background from the images that I have used in my contents page, front cover and double page spread.

To do this is simply used the “Quick Selection Tool” and drew around the outline of the image, I then used the “Subtract From Selection” tool to draw around the inside of the image (Parts I wanted to keep). When I was happy that the outline wouldn’t cut out any of the image I wanted I pressed “Delete” and the background was removed.

Microsoft Publisher: Magazine Design To put together the actual design for my magazine I used

Microsoft publisher. To help make sure my design was well organised and that all of the text boxes lined up I used the ruler tool to make sure they lined up. I also used the stock Microsoft publisher font as my magazines primary font.

For my double page spread I needed to make sure I added in a box of text that split up the main block of text that covered most of the right hand page. To do this I used the “Text Wrapping” tool to make sure that the text flowed around the edge of the text box with fluidity.

Pugs and Sub-Headings To complete my front covers pug I used a

combination of adobe Photoshop and Microsoft publisher. First of all I created on black circle that was the size I wanted, I then created a grey and red circle and aligned them so that the next colour was on the bottom right of the previous circle. I then saved this as a .png file and imported it into publisher using the import tool. I then simply added a text box with invisible edges and typed in the text that would occupy the pug.

Q7) Looking back at your preliminary task (Aquinas College magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression to the full product?

Practice Front Cover Compared To Current Front Cover

Practice Front Cover Compared To Current Front Cover As you can see my preliminary task looked very empty as

there weren’t too many pull quotes and subheadings and all the text is generally too small and doesn’t really stand out. The pug is also very small and hard to read.

In comparison the text and pugs on my finished front cover are a great improvement as they stand out against the background and are very bold, also the largest text is in red, differentiating it from the rest of the text.

The background also has quite a drastic gradient which means that it is hard to keep a common house style across the magazine, as some font colours clash with the black or red. As you can see I have learnt from that mistake and made the gradient a lot less striking in my final front cover as I made it light grey and white. This worked better as I can keep a good house style throughout the magazine.

Practice Contents Page Compared To Current Contents Page

Practice Contents Page Compared To Current Contents Page My preliminary magazine’s contents page had the same

problem as the front cover, the colour scheme didn’t really work and was very weak, the background clashed with the colour scheme and the only letters that were clear were those in white, and even towards the bottom of the page they started to look weaker and weaker. There was also a distinct lack of information that was anchoring the images and contents.

In comparison my final contents page has improved lots as the text is a lot larger and bolder, so its easier to see and clearer for the potential reader. There is also anchoring text that is underneath the contents text and headings and under the images which gives the reader a bit more information about what they’ll be reading about.

What have I learnt in this process and how has it affected my creative skills? Throughout the process of creating my preliminary magazine

and creating my final music magazine I feel that I have learnt a lot of publisher and Photoshop skills and these have helped me to improve my magazines. I have also learnt about competition between magazines, like Q, Mojo and Classic rock magazines, I have also learnt about media distribution agencies like Bauer, and how they have branched out of producing magazines to help promote their own magazines. I feel that this has positively affected my creative skills as I have been influenced by these magazines and companies and I have taken what I think to be the best bits of these magazines and compiled them into my own classic rock magazine that my audience research has proved that there is a need for as there are no magazines like it.

Choosing A Cover Image To choose a front cover image first of all I made an image contact

sheet which help me pick a shortlist for the best cover images. The contact sheet shows images that I will not be using (Crossed), images that I could potentially use (Ticks) and the finals images that I will be using (Starred).

To decide which images to use I thought of typical cover stars that would be in a classic rock magazines and fitted the criteria that the star had an instrument, had a smart/casual look, looked rebellious and had an appropriate facial expression. I also wanted the cover star to be looking into the camera as this would break the fourth wall and this gives the impression that the cover star doesn’t care very much about people looking and judging at him, it’ll also create a link with the reader and the reader will feel connected with the star. This helped me determine my final images.

Choosing A Font To Use

Choosing A Font To Use To choose a font I used a similar process that was used to determine

which cover image I would use. I decided my final text based on the one which fitted the conventions of a typical classic rock magazine, the final font I chose was “Cooppergate Gothic Bold”. I decided to use this font as it looked good bold and stood out well on the page. It also fitted the conventions of a classic rock magazines font, but also had quite a gothic look to it add to the “Rock Music” effect. I didn’t choose any of the fonts like “04b03rev”, “Terminal” and “Superdanger” as they didn’t work very well as large fonts as the text stretched and became very pixelated. They were also relatively hard to read on the first glance, which isn't good as when most people buy a magazine the will look at which one is the most appealing, and if they cant read the font, then they won't read the magazine. Fonts like “Leelawadee” and “Myriad Web Pro” are also not fitting for the magazine as they are just too small and quite thin and look very boring. I decided that “Coppergate Gothic Bold” worked well as it was very attractive and looked great bold.