In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenges forms &

conventions of real media products?

I have used the same mode of address as NME, so all my models are looking directly into the camera, and in many real-life magazines they use this too. I have also positioned my models in a staggered way, like on the NME front cover, however mine is more exaggerated, so I have developed this element of the NME front cover to create this effect. The camera angle is relatively similar to that of NME’s cover as they are both eye level shots, however the actual types of shots are different, as mine is a long shot, whereas NME’s is a medium long shot.

My magazine uses some typical forms of real life media products, such as the positioning of the masthead, which is along the top of the cover, and slightly to the left. I have also used a ‘puff’ which is ‘The UK’s no.1 indie music magazine’, which many magazines use, such as the one to the right.

The language I have used for my magazine is relatively informal, as this was what my primary researched showed my audience preferred. I think quite a lot of music magazines use informal language, and an example of this is shown to the left.

For the colour scheme I used a dark colour (the purple), with a light colour (the blue) and then added a red. I chose the light and dark colour first, as I thought this would work, as NME use black and white as their light and dark colours, and have red too. I thought that by not using black and white, it would make my magazine stand out more, and challenges typical forms and conventions of an indie magazine, as often the colours black and white are used.

The composition of my magazine is quite different to NME’s, but it uses elements of the magazine, as the subheading font is quite similar, and although both covers have a banner, mine is at the bottom, whereas NME’s is at the top. The stereotypical social class of an indie band is middle class, as they have to be able to afford instruments to play, and learn to play them too. My front cover plays up to this stereotype, as one of my models is holding a guitar, showing how they have their own instruments, and suggesting they are middle class. Stereotypically many indie bands are all male, therefore by using a mixture of both genders, I have slightly challenged this convention. Generally the majority of indie bands are all white, therefore I have conformed to this convention of an indie band, as all my band members are white.

All white & male. All white, but mixed genders.

Overall I think my magazine contains quite a lot of traditional elements, for example on the front cover there’s a bar code, price, banner and lots of things like that, which are all used on most magazines. The contents page uses photo’s that tie in with colour scheme, and the double page spread is written in columns. However there are aspects that challenge and develop conventions too, like the colour scheme and the way that there isn’t a majority of one gender in my magazine.

The yellow rings point out the typical elements of my magazine, and things that a lot of magazine’s have, such as the puff, competitions and banner.

How does your media product

represent particular social groups?

Age: In my magazine, overall most of the people are aged in their late teens and early twenties. This was so that my target audience could relate to them. I didn’t think that really elderly people would fit in with my magazine, and didn’t think they would have the same interests of my audience.

I have represented young people in my magazine as quite quirky & fun loving. The pictures I have used reflect this due to the type of shot & the clothing that the models are wearing. The band members look ‘fun loving’ individuals as there’s an action shot of them jumping, which suggests they are quite laid back and like to have fun. The clothing that the band members are wearing are very casual, but with a grungy edge to them, overall creating quite a quirky look.

For example the girl is wearing a flowing black skirt which is quite grungy, yet feminine, with a shirt which makes the look quite casual, finishing with a bobble hat, which creates the quirky feel.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Gender: The gender is completely mixed in my magazine. I didn’t want to put either gender off buying my magazine, therefore made sure there was a good mix of both boys and girls to keep everyone happy. The girls in my magazine aren’t typically represented like girls can be in magazines. Often girls in magazines are wearing revealing clothing or really girlie stereotypical clothes. Both my girls are wearing quite casual clothes, and nothing that is really revealing. I wanted my audience to see the girls as really passionate about their work, rather than people that had been put in a magazine to look pretty. The boys aren’t making themselves look overly masculine either, as male models and music artists often seem to be presented in magazines.

Ethnicity: Primarily my magazine is white, as it is a British magazine, and also is based around indie music, which is also primarily a white genre of music. I have represented British people as having quite a casual, yet passionate attitude towards their work and my band members are quite polite, and funny. This is shown in their dialogue, and fashion sense, which are both quite casual and give the impression of a relaxed personality.

Class: My magazine front cover represents middle class, as it is an indie band, and these are often middle class people, as they have to afford instruments to play. My magazine represents middle class, as the photo’s show one of the instruments that my band use, therefore proving that they have their own instruments. This reinforces the fact that they are likely to be middle class, as they have bought instruments, and potentially been encouraged to play by someone too.

I wanted my band to be represented in a way that made them seem just like ordinary people, and just four friends having fun, while creating good music. I have shown my band like this, by using fun & even quite different types of photo’s, to give the impression to the audience that they are fun-loving individuals, as well as a band that’s working hard to achieve what they want. In the interview my band members give some humorous answers, to emphasize that they have a good sense of humour, yet their introduction does state that ‘it’s clear their main focus is to be successful music artists, striving to achieve the best they can.’ This shows how they are also a very focused group of individuals, and this represents an indie band as being very passionate about their music.

Gemma: He was sick in one of my hats! Marie: (laughing) She didn’t find it until a week later..

Stereotypes: My magazine plays up to the indie stereotype as the band on the front cover are typically wearing what an indie band would wear. The girls are wearing the type of clothes that are typically associated with this genre of music. In the interview my band also present themselves like a lot of indie bands do – they state that they don’t want to fit in, yet this is what a lot of indie bands do, therefore they fit in really well with the indie music stereotype. ‘We don’t want to be another generic indie band, with no personality.’

It represents the younger generation as quite quirky, and confident, yet still with some of the typical elements associated with them. It also represents the younger generation as passionate.

These are quotes taken from my double page spread:

‘Sorry she’s always grumpy in a morning’ – this is after one of the band members says she’s tired, and this coincides with the stereotype that teenagers are grumpy in the morning, and moody.

‘She’s going to kill me, but Marie has a weird routine before going to bed, which involves putting mashed up banana on her feet..’This definitely makes Marie seem quirky.

‘Both very passionate and committed to their music’

What kind of media institution might distribute your product & why?

What kind of media institution might distribute your product & why?

IPC media would probably be a good publishing house to publish my magazine. They already publish NME magazine, and this is the main competition I think that my magazine would have. It has many similar aspects to my magazine, for example the indie/rock music element. I think that by them publishing it, it would help sales, as this publisher will already have the distribution network needed to sell my magazine, as it sells NME which is quite similar. I think that by publishing my magazine, it would limit any more direct competition, and even if the audience choose to buy my magazine, over NME, this publishing house would still gain from that.

I think that this publishing house will also have quite good experience within the genre, as although it only publishes one main music magazine, that music magazine is very popular, so the publishers must be doing something right. I think as IPC Media only own one other music magazine, there is room for them to expand this section of their brands, and help them to properly break into the music magazine market.

IPC also claim to be ‘committed to working in partnership with its consumers, advertisers, business partners and employees to deliver exceptional value, service, innovation and creativity.’ This is the kind of company that I would want to distribute my magazine.

Bauer media is another potential publisher that could distribute my magazine. Bauer media are the largest privately owned publishing group. It owns the largest UK music magazine, Mojo, and therefore would also be a good choice. Bauer media also own Q magazine, the UK’s biggest selling music monthly magazine. It has quite a lot of magazines, but nothing too similar to mine, and nothing specific to indie music, therefore it could help them break into the indie magazine market by distributing my magazine. It also has a lot of experience distributing magazines in general, and that’s a huge plus.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My audience research showed that people that might be interested in reading my magazine could be;

Also interested in reading NME and/or Kerrang, as these magazines are the ones that are most similar to my magazine, therefore the audience should also have some of the same interests if they read these magazines.

They will probably be interested in indie/rock/alternative music, such as;

Two Door Cinema Club

IndievidualSTATS

INDIEVIDUAL

Male 51%Female 49%Median age 19Student 58%Circulation 25,465Readership 357,000

MUSICIndievidual readers are passionate about music. Reader research shows that they rely on the internet, magazines and their friends to keep them up to date with new music.

FILMSIndievidual readers enjoy watching films, and often go to the cinema with their friends. Specifically research has shown that they particularly like comedies, and action films.

MOBILESIndievidual readers are three times more likely to persuade friends and family which the best mobile is to buy.

How did you attract/address your

audience?

In my audience research I found that putting a free gift in my magazine, may attract more people to buy it, therefore I used both a free poster, advertised in bold on my contents page and a competition advertised on the front cover and contents page to ‘win festival tickets’, to try and attract my audience.

I decided to also try and attract my audience by pricing my magazine competitively, and during my audience research I found most people would be willing to pay between £2 and £2.99 for a music magazine, therefore I priced mine at £2.50, right in the middle. It also means that my magazine is more expensive per magazine than it’s direct competition, NME, however mine is out fortnightly, and NME is weekly, therefore if they buy every copy, mine would work out cheaper. This is because they would spend £4.40 on NME, each fortnight, but only £2.50 on mine. This might make people more willing to buy it, or they might choose to buy mine as they can afford every issue, but not NME.

£4

Per month

£10

£5 £8.80

I chose to address and attract my audience by using a suitable colour scheme, which is red, blue and purple. I thought this was appropriate for the 14-24 aged target audience, as it was still quite bright, yet not too tacky or unprofessional looking. I edited photo’s on my contents page to fit in exactly with the colour scheme. I thought this would make it stand out as looking quite smart and potentially straightforward to read. I also used elements on my front cover that fit in with the colour scheme, for example the red colour of the hat, is the same red as my font. On my double page spread I outlined the photographs with an appropriate colour, so they still looked as if they fit in, and didn’t look out of place.

When I did my questionnaire, I found that many people wanted an equal amount of pictures to text ratio, therefore I tried to create this, and make sure there wasn’t too much of one or the other, so my audience would be happy. I also found out that the majority of people wanted a more organised and neatly presented magazine layout, so I tried to make sure my magazine wasn’t too messy, and was quite clear to read. I organised my photo’s in a way that I felt ensured the page wasn’t too busy and distracting for my reader. The images I used were both a combination of posed, and natural, as my research showed there was no preference, so I thought that by using a mixture of both, the majority of people would be satisfied.

All of the people that filled in my questionnaire said they would prefer a more chatty and conversational mode of address, therefore this is what I used in my magazine. I also used bits of humour, to fit in with the informal theme, and thought it would attract my target audience. I also thought that by using an informal mode of address it would add a more personal and friendly touch to my magazine and make my audience feel at ease whilst reading it. Here are some examples of informal language used in my magazine.

‘so pre-order it now to get your hands on it straight away! We know you’ll love it! ‘

‘get the nitty gritty details of our band’

‘started off playing small gigs in their local pubs’

‘Random poll of the week—Marmite …love or

hate?’

My audience research showed that the most important thing in a magazine appeared to be factual information and gossip, therefore I tried to include this in my magazine. I used factual information when I was talking about ‘The Bobcats’ and in their introduction, so that my audience got facts about them.

• ‘Will, originally from Newcastle, moved to York and decided to set up a band after learning to play the guitar. ‘

• ‘started off playing small gigs in their local pubs’

• ‘They came across another duet performing at one of the venues, and this is where the quirky new band, The Bobcats, came to life. ‘

However I then did an interview, and the information in that part of my magazine, was more like gossip-type information. It was one band member talking about the other, and joking about funny things that had happened, so it was more like gossip.

• ‘she’s always grumpy in a morning’

• ‘Marie has a weird routine before going to bed’

• ‘And Gemma snores!!’

On my content’s page I showed a reader’s story page, about festival experiences. I thought that it would add a personal feel to the magazine, and might make the reader’s feel more included in the magazine. I thought it might make the audience feel accepted and part of a cultural sub-group. If an individual was lonely, by reading this magazine, they may feel more accepted and like the magazine was almost like a substitute for real-life companionship, as they could get involved and write in to the magazine.

‘Readers funny real life festival experiences!’

What have you learnt about technologies from the

process of constructing this product?

Camera’s – I have learnt that to get a picture right, particularly an action shot, everyone’s timing has to perfect. Both the photographer, and the models need to work together well to get the shot right. It took me quite a few times to get the photograph of all my band members jumping, but when I finally got the timing right, the photo was worth it. I have also learnt that good framing and lighting are essential for a photograph to look good. You can alter lighting partially afterwards, but even so, if you get it right to start with you don’t need to, so you can save a lot of time. The framing and actual type of shot need to be right though, as these are difficult or almost impossible to alter afterwards. You can’t just make a rubbish photo good by editing it, the initial photo needs to be decent.

The successful action shot

Photoshop – I have learnt that Photoshop is very complicated! However when you get the hang of it, I think that the end effect is definitely worth it. You can change any tiny detail that you don’t like, and you can improve photographs so much. I experimented with the layers, filters and resizing of my photos. I loved the end photo that I used for my front cover and think that Photoshop was really good for adding the text and banners for my front cover and believe the program can be used to create a very professional looking end product. I think I’ve improved my Photoshop skills, as I found it quite hard to use at first, but felt more confident towards the end of my product.

SD cards & USB stick- I used an SD card to store my photos on when I took them on my camera. I never really realised just how useful they were, and how I just take it for granted how I use them to transfer photo’s with ease from one place to another. I then transferred the photo’s onto my USB stick and used it to move my photos from the camera, to the various computers I used. This meant I could alter them on Photoshop, and to put on Microsoft publisher for my double page spread and contents page, then finally to upload from there onto my blog. I have learnt that without these useful pieces of technology, transferring photo’s from one place to other would be a lot slower and less easy to do.

Computers – I used Microsoft publisher on a computer to create my contents page and double page spread. I also used a computer to access Photoshop for my front cover. I have learnt that Microsoft publisher is especially good when organising how to lay out a double page spread. When I was creating my double page spread, it made it really easy to move and change where different aspects of the page were. The text boxes made it really easy to lay out my double page spread exactly as I wanted it. This programme was also great when adding my photographs to it, as it was so easy to move, resize and crop them when needed. I also used a computer to access the internet and Photoshop.

InternetI have used the internet quite a lot during the making of my magazine. I have learnt that Wikipedia is a very useful website for collecting information about almost everything, and I used it to research lots of different things, such as different publishers. I have learnt that Blogger is a brilliant website for sharing information with others, and have found it quite easy to use. I think it’s great how people all over the world can see my work, and think I may use it again. I used magazine websites when researching the competition y magazine would have, and think that all of the magazine websites I looked on were very useful. I also used slide share to create a PowerPoint that would go directly onto my blog for people to see. The internet allowed me to access all of these resources, and without it I would have struggled in many different areas.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the

progression from it to the full product?

During my research I feel like I’ve learnt how important audience and market research really is. If you don’t know what your audience want or what’s already out there, you won’t know what to aim for, and who you’ll be competing against. I have learnt that I particularly like questionnaires, as from them you get a lot of people’s opinions, rather than just a couple from an interview. I think that they are great, unless you want really in-depth answers, and then an interview is obviously better, but more time consuming. I’ve learnt about the music magazine market, and about publishers, which really helped me, as I compared my magazine to the others out there, to try and make sure my magazine stood out among others.

Finding out about publishers meant I have learnt which ones look good, and if I was to create a real magazine, I now know all about various publishers, such as Bauer, who could distribute my magazine. By looking at which magazines they also own, it helped to see if any of them had a gap in the market for my magazine, or had prior experience with the genre of music my magazine is based around.

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=music+magazine+publishers&um=1&hl=en&safe=active&biw=1257&bih=626&tbm=isch&tbnid=lhxIub0p8AuShM:&imgrefurl=http://riverscourseworkblog.blogspot.com/&docid=J7Ke4mEXaFmxHM&imgurl=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PaJf7hKL-mQ/UIko_ZJ2WaI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/ezJFWSp4yFU/s1600/Untitled.png&w=1450&h=671&ei=c9pKUdv8C5C7hAfJmoEY&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=388&vpy=293&dur=937&hovh=153&hovw=330&tx=160&ty=121&page=3&tbnh=134&tbnw=290&start=49&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:58,s:0,i:257&surl=1

During the planning process I learnt that drafting is essential. I drafted basically everything before creating a final piece, as it helped me to realise what worked and what didn’t work.

Looking at my school magazine, you can see the progress I made to get to my final piece. On the school magazine, the photo doesn’t look professional, the colour is quite odd, but not in a good way, and there is hardly any writing or interesting elements to make people want to purchase it. Then on my planning for my music magazine, you can see I’ve tried to make sure all of this was changed, for example on the plan there are free things advertised and different points of interest, all to entice people to take an interest in the magazine. Then on my final piece you can see how I’ve changed some things, to try and make it look more professional, such as the layout, and I have slightly changed the colours, as now the red is darker then on the plan, and the blue is a different shade.

I have learnt that to get the perfect photographs takes a lot of planning and preparation. Not only did I plan the photographs on paper, so I knew what I needed to take, I had to organise the models, and clothing and props, to make sure I got the shots I needed.

Shows some of the props/clothing used.

I also had to find a good location to take the photographs. Luckily on the day of the shoot, the weather held out, but if not I had a back-up plan, which involved a different location, which I had to plan for too. I feel like I progressed with my photography skills and feel more confident to tell people where I want them to stand or what pose I want them to do now, whereas before this task I was more reserved and didn’t really want to tell people what to do. I learnt that I had to be specific though, or the models just didn’t know what to do, and I was actually more helpful to them when I was telling them what to do. The photo on my preliminary task is quite boring, and the editing doesn’t look particularly good, so you can see the improvement if you look at the other pictures I took for my final magazine. The lighting is much better, and the framing, and because the photo was good to start with, I didn’t have to do much editing to get it exactly how I wanted.

During production I think I have improved my Photoshop skills considerably. At the beginning, you can see from the school magazine how poor my skills were. Then if you look at the final magazine front cover, you can see I’ve got better and more confident with using the software. I now feel like if I had to use it for other things, I’d be able to. Specifically I feel like I have improved my skills with using the text tool, as I now know how to change the colour, size and location of text.

I also feel lots more confident with using the different layers too, as I understand how they work now. I think during production my camera skills have also improved, as I’ve learnt how to get lighting right, and how to edit properly. For example I slightly changed the contrast of my front cover photograph, as it looked better that way, and I altered the colours of the ones on my contents page, so they fit in with my colour scheme.

If I was to do my magazine again, I think I would probably make the most changes to the contents page, as this was probably the aspect of magazine that I was least happy with. I think I’d alter the layout and potentially change the font of the highlights of my magazine. I think I would probably choose a font more like the ones below.

PAGE 6 THE BOBCATS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWPAGE 6 THE BOBCATS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

I think I would also change the colour of the text box outline to make them stand out a bit more, like below.

I think I would also add more photo’s to the contents page to add more interest to the readers, potentially of different instruments, or different bands.

I’d probably alter the photo of the pair of girls on my double page spread as the lighting isn’t great, and it could definitely be improved. I think I’d probably make them more comical if I was to do it again too. I might do this by adding props such as oversized moustaches or something really weird, just to make readers think, ‘what are they doing?’. It would also relate to the element of being ‘different’.

If I was to do it again, I think I’d also change the background of the double page spread and contents page, and try and somehow make it more interesting. I might add a pattern or something like that, just to make it less plain. I think I would add a link to Facebook or Twitter page or a social networking site, as these are extremely popular among my target audience, and I think by not having that on my magazine, I could have missed a opportunity to appeal to my target audience.

I might also advertise the ‘FREE MGMT POSTER’ on the front cover as free things were shown to appeal to people quite a lot my research showed, and although I did advertise the festival ticket competition, if I advertise the free poster and competition, it might grab even more potential reader’s attention. I might have put this on my front cover in the form of a strip, across one of the corners, as shown below.

During the audience research I think if I did it again I might also ask more in detail questions about more specific elements, such as ‘what type of free gift would interest you the most when buying a magazine?’, instead of ‘would a free gift with a magazine make you more likely to buy it?’. Or even by using both, I ‘d find out more.

FREE

POST

ER