Thursday 22 May 2014
Thursday 15 May 2014
Monday 14 April 2014
Production Diary 9
Please click below to listen to my Soundcloud post explaining what tasks I have completed today.
https://soundcloud.com/laylaek/production-diary-9
https://soundcloud.com/laylaek/production-diary-9
Saturday 5 April 2014
Production Dairy 8
Please click below to listen to my Soundcloud post explaining what tasks I have completed today.
https://soundcloud.com/laylaek/production-log/s-rNIzJ
https://soundcloud.com/laylaek/production-log/s-rNIzJ
Monday 24 March 2014
Thursday 20 March 2014
Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When designing my magazine, I needed something to look up to for ideas. I thought that if I followed the style of one magazine along with its basic conventions, then I would be successful. I used NME magazine as I thought that it's a very professional and a popular magazine in the indie/rock genre. I also think that the house style works extremely successfully and fits in with the target audience.
My cover image of my magazine fits within the usual photographs that NME magazine uses. A close up image of the artist giving direct eye contact to the audience. This attracts the audience as it appeals to all different social types and draws them into purchasing the magazine as it grabs all of their attention. NME successfully uses this technique therefore I felt it was necessary to use as it is a magazine convention.
I have used the same colour scheme of red, black and white. The masthead however, is very different as I chose not to use a logo and just stuck with the simple word stretched across the main image; I chose not to go for the Black, red and white title as it's famously associated with NME magazine and I wanted to create my own feature that stood out and was easily associated with the magazine. I can use this masthead on any cover with any photo and it would still look realistic and professional. Black tends to compliment most colours so having it permanently in the house style makes the magazine very consistent and well-known. I decided to use a edgy font that isn't regularly used on front covers, I have capitalised my masthead to make it jump out from the page and catch the audience eyes. The typeface looks extremely scruffy however it fits in with my target audience.
The thing i liked most about the NME contents page was the band index. I have chosen to stick to my colour scheme and use a chunky, bold font with my title 'GRANITE contents' on the top right hand side of the double page. This stands out amongst the rest of the cover as
the black and red stand out on top of the white background. I like the fact that bands and artists are featured in not only my contents but some of them are also listened in the NME contents because it allows the audience to know which artists are going to be in the magazine that month, and immediately attracts fans instantly instead of them having to
guess or flick thought the whole magazine to find out.
I also featured the page number and artists name in two different colours, to make the artists names stand out the most. By having this feature it was a quick way to make my magazine appear different and effective as it's not a consistent feature in NME however I would continue to use it. Because i think it's a unique part that makes GRANITE.
It was important that I included the main artists head-line in big, bold writing which was placed at the bottom of the page underneath Charlotte in big black capitalised font. I decided to make this sell line the biggest on the front cover; my whole article inside my magazine is base on Charlotte and her life.
I think the magazine would look very bare and boring without the main headline appearing larger than the rest of text; it wouldn't look complete. Similar to NME, I featured the artists name in larger text of a different colour to draw immediate attention to it. Her name is also featured in a different font to the rest of the text to grab more attention.
The contents page included all of the conventions of a magazine such as the regulars, features and on the cover. I included plenty of images in my contents page to make it look more interesting as most contents pages look quite plain and actually turn the reader against looking at them. I chose to include an subscription box as I wanted to break up the text on the contents page so things popped out to the readers and it wasn't all just one big heap of writing. I included a social networking area on the bottom right hand side of the page as I want the magazine to interact with it's readers very regularly, which fits in well with their interests and the personal relationships of the uses and gratifications theory
The main article features many conventions of a magazine such as the big, bold pull out quotes, full bleed images, small single photos to one hand size of the page that where to do with Camden round house, Charlotte and some live gigs images. All images that are related to my article and strongly appeal to my target audience. From making some final adjustments I was able to make my magazine look more realistic and professional and most importantly appeal to the audience more. I chose images in this article that stood out well and represented the type of language that was included inside it; for example taboo language this fits in perfectly to the image of where Charlotte is standing leaning on the trolley pulling a aggressive face. This conveys that Charlotte is very careless and rebellious. I used 3 columns for the articles layout as it makes the magazine easier to read whilst giving it a professional look. I also used pull out quotes which grabs readers eyes even before they read the article. Using these conventions simply and easily allowed my magazine to look more successful and professional.
Generally speaking, by basing my magazine on an existing magazine (NME) and using its main codes and conventions, I think it has helped me to make my magazine look professional and realistic.
My cover image of my magazine fits within the usual photographs that NME magazine uses. A close up image of the artist giving direct eye contact to the audience. This attracts the audience as it appeals to all different social types and draws them into purchasing the magazine as it grabs all of their attention. NME successfully uses this technique therefore I felt it was necessary to use as it is a magazine convention.
I have used the same colour scheme of red, black and white. The masthead however, is very different as I chose not to use a logo and just stuck with the simple word stretched across the main image; I chose not to go for the Black, red and white title as it's famously associated with NME magazine and I wanted to create my own feature that stood out and was easily associated with the magazine. I can use this masthead on any cover with any photo and it would still look realistic and professional. Black tends to compliment most colours so having it permanently in the house style makes the magazine very consistent and well-known. I decided to use a edgy font that isn't regularly used on front covers, I have capitalised my masthead to make it jump out from the page and catch the audience eyes. The typeface looks extremely scruffy however it fits in with my target audience.
The thing i liked most about the NME contents page was the band index. I have chosen to stick to my colour scheme and use a chunky, bold font with my title 'GRANITE contents' on the top right hand side of the double page. This stands out amongst the rest of the cover as
the black and red stand out on top of the white background. I like the fact that bands and artists are featured in not only my contents but some of them are also listened in the NME contents because it allows the audience to know which artists are going to be in the magazine that month, and immediately attracts fans instantly instead of them having to
guess or flick thought the whole magazine to find out.
I also featured the page number and artists name in two different colours, to make the artists names stand out the most. By having this feature it was a quick way to make my magazine appear different and effective as it's not a consistent feature in NME however I would continue to use it. Because i think it's a unique part that makes GRANITE.
It was important that I included the main artists head-line in big, bold writing which was placed at the bottom of the page underneath Charlotte in big black capitalised font. I decided to make this sell line the biggest on the front cover; my whole article inside my magazine is base on Charlotte and her life.
I think the magazine would look very bare and boring without the main headline appearing larger than the rest of text; it wouldn't look complete. Similar to NME, I featured the artists name in larger text of a different colour to draw immediate attention to it. Her name is also featured in a different font to the rest of the text to grab more attention.
The contents page included all of the conventions of a magazine such as the regulars, features and on the cover. I included plenty of images in my contents page to make it look more interesting as most contents pages look quite plain and actually turn the reader against looking at them. I chose to include an subscription box as I wanted to break up the text on the contents page so things popped out to the readers and it wasn't all just one big heap of writing. I included a social networking area on the bottom right hand side of the page as I want the magazine to interact with it's readers very regularly, which fits in well with their interests and the personal relationships of the uses and gratifications theory
The main article features many conventions of a magazine such as the big, bold pull out quotes, full bleed images, small single photos to one hand size of the page that where to do with Camden round house, Charlotte and some live gigs images. All images that are related to my article and strongly appeal to my target audience. From making some final adjustments I was able to make my magazine look more realistic and professional and most importantly appeal to the audience more. I chose images in this article that stood out well and represented the type of language that was included inside it; for example taboo language this fits in perfectly to the image of where Charlotte is standing leaning on the trolley pulling a aggressive face. This conveys that Charlotte is very careless and rebellious. I used 3 columns for the articles layout as it makes the magazine easier to read whilst giving it a professional look. I also used pull out quotes which grabs readers eyes even before they read the article. Using these conventions simply and easily allowed my magazine to look more successful and professional.
Generally speaking, by basing my magazine on an existing magazine (NME) and using its main codes and conventions, I think it has helped me to make my magazine look professional and realistic.
Q2. How does your media product represent particular socialgroups?
My media product represents my particular social group by the use of costume, props and the type of language used in the magazine. My magazine is aimed at the social class, grade A, B and sometimes C1.
I've decided A and B will be main grade of social class for my magazine which is a very wide audience, however it means that it attracts mostly high/middle-class people who are interested in going to festivals and gigs and enjoy buying magazines monthly and don't mind spending extra money on subscription. I have tried to attract this social class by the use of my model and her costume, make-up and location of my photoshoot what is Camden and Shoreditch.
My model Charlotte Young, is a female in her late teens. She is posing as a popular rock artist for my magazine GRANITE. She has short purple hair that is styled messy and grunge like. For the images Charlotte is wearing, a tartan leather black and red coat, underneath dark red dungarees with black tights and big chunky Doc Martens with a over sized diamond neck less. Her make-up is very simple and plain with just some heavy eye-liner. I decided this outfit choice was appropriate for my target audience as in the indie/rock genre popular magazines such as: NME and Q haven't sexualised women. Becuase the audience are mainly int rested in the talent of the artists music then their looks. I decided to dress my model in the colours of black and red because they fit in with my house style throughout my magazine and are also the main colours of the indie/rock genre. The simple plain faced make-up indicates to my audience that what you see is what you get with Charlotte Young throughout the article in the magazine. Tartan and leather are worn a lot by the Indie/rock community because they're a very popular and fashionable fabrics that are worn by a lot of famous artists in that genre. Clothing is very important when trying to appeal to a certain social groups as they are all interested in similar clothing and styles.
For facial expressions, Charlotte mainly looked quite stern and aggressive giving direct eye contact to the audience in my front cover image I decided this was a good photograph to has a front cover because it will draw the audience in and capture their full attention to my magazine. Charlotte also gave silly faces opening up her mouth in shock and pointing at the painting of herself on the wall too to play on the energetic and exciting side of the magazine. I felt that smiling wasn't a very successful pose as it makes the artist appear to be sweet and innocent which would make my magazine look like it is aimed at a younger audience of the pop genre. however this would be more suitable for a magazine such as Top Of The Pops.
I decided not to use many props in my photoshoot my main prop was a giant metal shopping trolley i decided to use this because it portrayed my main artist Charlotte as a rebellious care free young adult. Who liked having fun. The trolley being heavy metal also fits in with some of the artists I will be featuring inside my magazine. I also used a guitar that is displayed in a small images on my contents page. I decided to use this as it fits in with the Indie genre of the magazine - this prop is musically related which will highlight the initial point of the magazine.
The language featured in my magazine is both quite formal and conversational, at some times some of the things mentioned are quite serious and emotional topics. I decided to use a lot of taboo language because it was appropiate for my target audience and was also popular in other magazines of my genre such as: Q and NME all use this similar lexis and it reflects the honesty and authenticity of the magazine. It makes the reader feel excited and a part of the magazine it could represent how the particular social group tend to speak and their overall vocabulary in a day to day basis.
The way my model Charlotte has posed its very important and it's one of the main things the audience first see. I would like the magazine to appeal to both males and females so there has to be images that suit both genders. I needed to choose a model that wouldn't mind pulling ridiculous faces but also keeping a stern and simple face. I wanted to portray Charlotte as someone who would be role model to my female audience but also attractive and talented to the males.
I have used a house style for my magazine within the colours of red,black,white and some purple. This was to keep it all together and have an professional look. I mainly used red, black and white's informs my audience to the genre of my magazine which again, appeals to my particular social groups. I want my magazine to be intresting whilst also quite simplistic and a little bit serious, adding bright whites and gory blacks with a vibrant red really implies what I am going for.
I've decided A and B will be main grade of social class for my magazine which is a very wide audience, however it means that it attracts mostly high/middle-class people who are interested in going to festivals and gigs and enjoy buying magazines monthly and don't mind spending extra money on subscription. I have tried to attract this social class by the use of my model and her costume, make-up and location of my photoshoot what is Camden and Shoreditch.
My model Charlotte Young, is a female in her late teens. She is posing as a popular rock artist for my magazine GRANITE. She has short purple hair that is styled messy and grunge like. For the images Charlotte is wearing, a tartan leather black and red coat, underneath dark red dungarees with black tights and big chunky Doc Martens with a over sized diamond neck less. Her make-up is very simple and plain with just some heavy eye-liner. I decided this outfit choice was appropriate for my target audience as in the indie/rock genre popular magazines such as: NME and Q haven't sexualised women. Becuase the audience are mainly int rested in the talent of the artists music then their looks. I decided to dress my model in the colours of black and red because they fit in with my house style throughout my magazine and are also the main colours of the indie/rock genre. The simple plain faced make-up indicates to my audience that what you see is what you get with Charlotte Young throughout the article in the magazine. Tartan and leather are worn a lot by the Indie/rock community because they're a very popular and fashionable fabrics that are worn by a lot of famous artists in that genre. Clothing is very important when trying to appeal to a certain social groups as they are all interested in similar clothing and styles.
For facial expressions, Charlotte mainly looked quite stern and aggressive giving direct eye contact to the audience in my front cover image I decided this was a good photograph to has a front cover because it will draw the audience in and capture their full attention to my magazine. Charlotte also gave silly faces opening up her mouth in shock and pointing at the painting of herself on the wall too to play on the energetic and exciting side of the magazine. I felt that smiling wasn't a very successful pose as it makes the artist appear to be sweet and innocent which would make my magazine look like it is aimed at a younger audience of the pop genre. however this would be more suitable for a magazine such as Top Of The Pops.
I decided not to use many props in my photoshoot my main prop was a giant metal shopping trolley i decided to use this because it portrayed my main artist Charlotte as a rebellious care free young adult. Who liked having fun. The trolley being heavy metal also fits in with some of the artists I will be featuring inside my magazine. I also used a guitar that is displayed in a small images on my contents page. I decided to use this as it fits in with the Indie genre of the magazine - this prop is musically related which will highlight the initial point of the magazine.
The language featured in my magazine is both quite formal and conversational, at some times some of the things mentioned are quite serious and emotional topics. I decided to use a lot of taboo language because it was appropiate for my target audience and was also popular in other magazines of my genre such as: Q and NME all use this similar lexis and it reflects the honesty and authenticity of the magazine. It makes the reader feel excited and a part of the magazine it could represent how the particular social group tend to speak and their overall vocabulary in a day to day basis.
The way my model Charlotte has posed its very important and it's one of the main things the audience first see. I would like the magazine to appeal to both males and females so there has to be images that suit both genders. I needed to choose a model that wouldn't mind pulling ridiculous faces but also keeping a stern and simple face. I wanted to portray Charlotte as someone who would be role model to my female audience but also attractive and talented to the males.
I have used a house style for my magazine within the colours of red,black,white and some purple. This was to keep it all together and have an professional look. I mainly used red, black and white's informs my audience to the genre of my magazine which again, appeals to my particular social groups. I want my magazine to be intresting whilst also quite simplistic and a little bit serious, adding bright whites and gory blacks with a vibrant red really implies what I am going for.
Q3. What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?
The institution company I've chosen to distribute my magazine is one that doesn’t yet distribute a magazine that is the same genre or style of my magazine. I believe that this is mandatory so that it can enhance the magazine’s audience who read similar magazines. I would not choose a company such as IPC Media or Bauer Media, who distribute extremely successful magazines such as Kerrang!, NME and Q. This is because my magazine GRANITE is extremely alike to these magazines therefore it’s too similar to use, when the distributors would want something different and unique to produce to their readers. Then it wouldn't be in competition with the other magazines.
These distributors, Future PLC distributes magazines that fit within my genre therefore my magazine would appeal to their audience. This displays that there is consistency within their magazines that they choose to distribute, as all of the magazines follow the typical stereotypes and demographics of male and female audience 16-25 producing magazines about indie/rock music and guitars and drums which are hugely popular within the indie/rock genre, as well as brands such as TOPMAN and Apple – which is generally the same target audience that I aim to reach out to. I feel like this is the most appropriate distributor to go for as they would do a successful job of publishing my magazine – it wouldn’t go unnoticed. Future PLC has great experience in publishing and distributing music magazines as well as involving itself with brands appropriate to the target audience, so it is almost guaranteed that my magazine will be successful with this distributor.
Future PLC have published many different magazines such as: Total Guitar, Musicradar an online magazine, Rhythm and Guitarist. Some of these magazines are not necessarily well-known to most readers; Guitarist is aimed at a different target audience to my magazine, males who are are in there 40's. They all fit within the same genre of my magazine therefore this would enhance my magazine’s readership and circulation as even just mentioning the genre of ‘indie’ or 'rock' would interest a lot more readers of whom read the other magazines as they all have similar attributes and qualities; this would interest future PLC as they would feel intrigued to try out my magazine as they are aware of the previous success from the other magazines that they have published; would like to have a magazine that is open to a wider ranged audience like GRANITE.
I have also decided to use Future PLC as my distributor is because they were named ‘Best Digital Publisher’ at the AOP awards in 2011. Although having a print magazine is very significant, my magazine is going to be a hit online as well therefore a distributor that can maximise the success of my online magazine is essential, especially to beat other successful magazines such as Q. As the new media is currently taking over the traditional, print media, it is necessary that I create both of these types of magazines as I want my magazine to appeal to as much of the audience that I can. I believe that Future PLC will be able to take advantage of my magazine with combined efforts, my magazine will be able to become highly successful.
These distributors, Future PLC distributes magazines that fit within my genre therefore my magazine would appeal to their audience. This displays that there is consistency within their magazines that they choose to distribute, as all of the magazines follow the typical stereotypes and demographics of male and female audience 16-25 producing magazines about indie/rock music and guitars and drums which are hugely popular within the indie/rock genre, as well as brands such as TOPMAN and Apple – which is generally the same target audience that I aim to reach out to. I feel like this is the most appropriate distributor to go for as they would do a successful job of publishing my magazine – it wouldn’t go unnoticed. Future PLC has great experience in publishing and distributing music magazines as well as involving itself with brands appropriate to the target audience, so it is almost guaranteed that my magazine will be successful with this distributor.
Future PLC have published many different magazines such as: Total Guitar, Musicradar an online magazine, Rhythm and Guitarist. Some of these magazines are not necessarily well-known to most readers; Guitarist is aimed at a different target audience to my magazine, males who are are in there 40's. They all fit within the same genre of my magazine therefore this would enhance my magazine’s readership and circulation as even just mentioning the genre of ‘indie’ or 'rock' would interest a lot more readers of whom read the other magazines as they all have similar attributes and qualities; this would interest future PLC as they would feel intrigued to try out my magazine as they are aware of the previous success from the other magazines that they have published; would like to have a magazine that is open to a wider ranged audience like GRANITE.
I have also decided to use Future PLC as my distributor is because they were named ‘Best Digital Publisher’ at the AOP awards in 2011. Although having a print magazine is very significant, my magazine is going to be a hit online as well therefore a distributor that can maximise the success of my online magazine is essential, especially to beat other successful magazines such as Q. As the new media is currently taking over the traditional, print media, it is necessary that I create both of these types of magazines as I want my magazine to appeal to as much of the audience that I can. I believe that Future PLC will be able to take advantage of my magazine with combined efforts, my magazine will be able to become highly successful.
Wednesday 5 March 2014
Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
My magazine suits the age range of 16-25 and both genders, I believe younger
readers are more interested in new music and artists and finding out about
them. My research and audience data also suggests this as it shows that young
people are more willing to research and find out about new artists whereas
older readers know who they like, and know their styles. I think the social
class and gender of my readers is a lot wider my results highlighted, females
and males were both interested in new media to keep up to date and to
engage with their favourite artists. This was useful as it meant that I knew it
could add more features using social media into my magazine, which I have done with Twitter and Instagram, and also decided to
create a website to watch exclusive videos and to enter competitions to win big
prices such as; Glastonbury tickets, meeting a band/artist. Because my audience
aren’t too old they would be computer literate so things like android phone
apps and viewing my website would be extremely easy for them.
I also worked out that my target audience enjoy going to festival, gigs, and buying music off ITunes. This emphasis that most of the people who are buying my magazine are from a middle class background; they will have to be able to afford festivals, gigs, buying online music and also buying my magazine what is priced at £4.50 monthly what is an affordable price for a monthly magazine. This helped me create the other features in my magazine including ‘100 greatest gigs ever’ and ‘Win tickets to Glastonbury’. I also have included QR scanners because in my research I saw that nearly all of my target audience had smart phones which have access to the internet so therefore I wanted to use this to my advantage so my audience can scan through and automatically open my magazines web page.
I also had a think about the style of bands and artists in my magazine. All of them are from the indie and rock genre. I decided to have my magazine focusing on two genres because then it opens a wider readership. However both of the genres fit in extremely well together and most of my audience will enjoy listening to both.
At the moment these two genres seem to have a very popular following online and mainly from young people. Because my target audience enjoy listening to new up and coming bands. They like to have their own taste and their not scared of what others think of their music choice. The indie-rock following is full of people who want to find new exciting bands and buy their albums, go to their concerts and support them online. A great way to get my audience to buy my magazine is to advertise a free ITunes song from either the rock or indie genre in each monthly issue. This would be a fantastic way for my magazine to be known; people would be wanting to buy it just to get the free song. However they will also have to read through some of my magazine. This could get them into liking my magazine so then they will carry on buying each issue. When thinking about the styles of the artists I also had to think about the way I would present these bands. I had to make sure the bands had attention grabbing headlines, and that the images were sharp, unique and interesting. I needed to make sure that my target audience would wanted to pick the magazine up and read it. It needed to be different from all of the others on the shelf it need to be bold and appeal to both gender and most ages.
The audience for my music magazine are 16-25 teenagers and young adults, interested in the genre and want to engage in new ways with my music. The social class for my magazine will be grade A, B and sometimes grade C1. A and B will be main grade of social class for my magazine; my target audience will mainly be, class A upper middle class, working as a higher managerial, administrative or professional. class B upper middle class, would be intermediate managerial, administrative or professional. Class C1 lower middle class, supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional.
These job types will impact on my magazine because the majority of my target audience will be earning a good quantity of money and will be extremely willing to pay the price of £4.50 for my magazine.The psychographics of my magazine will apply to lovers of music festivals, gigs and those who enjoy reading and being kept up to date with the latest news and information about music and their favourite artists. I believe that my target audience will fit within the 'mainstreamer' and 'reformers'; they are very individual and independent people who do not like to follow the crowd. Their social habits will be consumption via hard copies from shops such as WHSmith and newsagents, as well as reading online or on apps as they enjoy to be on the go.
I also worked out that my target audience enjoy going to festival, gigs, and buying music off ITunes. This emphasis that most of the people who are buying my magazine are from a middle class background; they will have to be able to afford festivals, gigs, buying online music and also buying my magazine what is priced at £4.50 monthly what is an affordable price for a monthly magazine. This helped me create the other features in my magazine including ‘100 greatest gigs ever’ and ‘Win tickets to Glastonbury’. I also have included QR scanners because in my research I saw that nearly all of my target audience had smart phones which have access to the internet so therefore I wanted to use this to my advantage so my audience can scan through and automatically open my magazines web page.
I also had a think about the style of bands and artists in my magazine. All of them are from the indie and rock genre. I decided to have my magazine focusing on two genres because then it opens a wider readership. However both of the genres fit in extremely well together and most of my audience will enjoy listening to both.
At the moment these two genres seem to have a very popular following online and mainly from young people. Because my target audience enjoy listening to new up and coming bands. They like to have their own taste and their not scared of what others think of their music choice. The indie-rock following is full of people who want to find new exciting bands and buy their albums, go to their concerts and support them online. A great way to get my audience to buy my magazine is to advertise a free ITunes song from either the rock or indie genre in each monthly issue. This would be a fantastic way for my magazine to be known; people would be wanting to buy it just to get the free song. However they will also have to read through some of my magazine. This could get them into liking my magazine so then they will carry on buying each issue. When thinking about the styles of the artists I also had to think about the way I would present these bands. I had to make sure the bands had attention grabbing headlines, and that the images were sharp, unique and interesting. I needed to make sure that my target audience would wanted to pick the magazine up and read it. It needed to be different from all of the others on the shelf it need to be bold and appeal to both gender and most ages.
The audience for my music magazine are 16-25 teenagers and young adults, interested in the genre and want to engage in new ways with my music. The social class for my magazine will be grade A, B and sometimes grade C1. A and B will be main grade of social class for my magazine; my target audience will mainly be, class A upper middle class, working as a higher managerial, administrative or professional. class B upper middle class, would be intermediate managerial, administrative or professional. Class C1 lower middle class, supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional.
These job types will impact on my magazine because the majority of my target audience will be earning a good quantity of money and will be extremely willing to pay the price of £4.50 for my magazine.
Tuesday 4 March 2014
Class presentation and feedback
When presenting my music magazine to the rest of the class it allowed me to confidently sell my magazine and identify all the reasoning behind all the features of my magazine. It also allowed me to find out feed back from my peers to see what they thought of my magazine overall. I took this opportunity to ask my peers to fill out a five sheeted questionnaire that helped me with improving my magazine. From receiving feedback from my target audience will allow to me identity the improvements needed for my magazine to make it the best it could be. My main concerns I decided to address to my peers were issues with my contents page and third double page spread.
Improvements for my third double page spread:. Add more images to the right hand side of the page
. Not have a full bleed image. As they've been used frequently.
. Use other colours than black.
Improvements for my content page:
. Include images of artists/bands performing live. E.g. Reading Festival or Camden Round House
. Fill in gaps at underneath 'On the cover' with a subscription box.
. Write more headings for 'On the cover'.
I have listened to what my peers have sign from my feedback forms, however I disagree with some of the improvements, such as: not using black so often. This colour fits into my music genre of Indie/rock. It's a popular colour that is used in many well known magazines such as NME and Kerrang. I have listened to some of the improvements from my peers; I agree parts of it needed improving.
I have now changed my contents page by adding in some photographs I took at Reading Festival this Summer, I also took some more photographs of different models, to look like they where in a band. This filled in the space down the middle of my page. I also added a subscription box underneath 'On the cover' I decided this would be popular with my target audience because they're in the Class A,B and C1 and also working as most of them are at an older age they can afford to pay a little extra each month to have GRANITE my magazine delivered to their doors. I also double checked all of my sell-lines on my front cover to make sure I had included them on my contents page. I realised that I hadn't included them all so I added one that I miss in to fill the space.
I personally didn't want to change my third double spread because I really love all of the full bleed images. I also think it's really appropriate for my target audience because they have the money to spend and my magazine is priced at £4.00 a month, what is quite pricey for a new magazine coming out. Printing full bleed images in colour is quite expensive, but I love it. Because it's something different and unique.
Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?
The main way in which I attracted my target audience was by the cover image and content featured inside the magazine. The main attention-grabbing feature is the mid shot image I used on the front cover which appeals to the audience and intrigues the audience to purchase my magazine. The colour scheme, of which follows my popular house style of red, white, black and purple attracts the audience as it's big, bright and bold which stands out and makes the magazine look attractive for the buyer. It's a very popular house style within rock music magazines such as: NME and The Rolling Stones. It also is suitable for both genders.
I decided to create a small competition with my magazine, by including quotes of song lyrics from the indie/rock genre, on the top of each double page. To enter the competition you have to tweet my magazines Twitter account, with the name of the song and the artist/band. The winner will then receive a free ticket to Reading Festival. I think this works very well with my magazine; my target audience enjoy going to festivals. From seeing this competition they would be more interested in my magazine. The front cover features the model giving direct eye contact whilst looking bare face but having a striking unique hair colour - this makes the model appeal to both genders as she can be seen as an idol to women and attractive and just a good performer to males therefore engaging both of the sexes to purchase the magazine to find out more about her as she lures them in.
When you first look inside my magazine, the reader will be automatically glued to all of the hot topics I have chosen to include in the contents page and they won't know where to look first. The list along the left hand side of the contents page is 'The band index' with a list of all of the artists in the Indie/rock genre, some that are well known and also some that would be up and coming artists. However my target audience are very open at exploring unheard of artists and like being unique and different listening to new artists and not following the crowds.
My article is very long and interesting. It's packed with exciting stories and news which keeps the reader interested. However towards the end some of my article uses taboo language and turns quite aggressive. This is appropriate for my target audience; the Indie/rock genre tend to have this in their magazine articles. My article is aimed at both genders and late teens/young adults. This has been made clear because of the choice of topic is appropriate for both genders and the, text is acceptable for the age range.
My article goes over 2 and a half double page spreads, that all have full bleed images. These images inside creates an personal relationships between the magazine and the buyer. By having a interview of Charlotte Young's gig inside GRANITE, allows the reader to find out everyone's opinion on Young and not just GRANITE. It also gives the readers something to laugh at and some factual information.
For the appearance of my magazine, I decided to make my GRANITE have a very unique, professional, grungy and edgy look. The house-style of my magazine is red, white, purple and black - colours which connote power, royalty, love and passion - all of which I believe my magazine has. Red is also a very gender neutral colour and highlights the beauty and loyalty of the magazine. Red appeals greatly to the audience therefore making it look professional and attractive to the buyer. This gives the magazine a style that people will remember and look for in the future, especially on shelves as it is very eye-catching. I decided to add some purple into my magazine so that it was a little more unique then all of the other Indie/rock magazine out there today.
I mainly have attracted my audience into my magazine by advertising well known bands and artists as sell-lines on the front cover. This will make my reader want to pick up my magazine and want to have a look inside.
By using all of my own images, It really gave the magazine a real and genuine look. Using photographs I took myself at Reading Festival this year. These images immediately inform the reader of the sort of concerts which will be discussed, whilst also indicating that the magazine interacts with the audience and credits the gig-goers by using their images - a lot of people are interested in being featured on GRANITE'S instagram account for their own personal taken images therefore using this feature has created a unique selling point for my magazine which attracts my audience.
In earlier blog posts, I mentioned using new media to attract my specific target audience as through research I discovered that my target audience are thoroughly engaged with spending the majoirty of their time online on social networking websites such as Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. I have taken to these social networking websites by creating accounts with them to promote the magazine further. This enables the audience to stay involved constantly with the magazine and increase personal relationships with GRANITE and help them to gain more information. I have advertised GRANITE'S website on each double page spread in my magazine and also included their Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Facebook account.
I decided to create a small competition with my magazine, by including quotes of song lyrics from the indie/rock genre, on the top of each double page. To enter the competition you have to tweet my magazines Twitter account, with the name of the song and the artist/band. The winner will then receive a free ticket to Reading Festival. I think this works very well with my magazine; my target audience enjoy going to festivals. From seeing this competition they would be more interested in my magazine. The front cover features the model giving direct eye contact whilst looking bare face but having a striking unique hair colour - this makes the model appeal to both genders as she can be seen as an idol to women and attractive and just a good performer to males therefore engaging both of the sexes to purchase the magazine to find out more about her as she lures them in.
When you first look inside my magazine, the reader will be automatically glued to all of the hot topics I have chosen to include in the contents page and they won't know where to look first. The list along the left hand side of the contents page is 'The band index' with a list of all of the artists in the Indie/rock genre, some that are well known and also some that would be up and coming artists. However my target audience are very open at exploring unheard of artists and like being unique and different listening to new artists and not following the crowds.
My article is very long and interesting. It's packed with exciting stories and news which keeps the reader interested. However towards the end some of my article uses taboo language and turns quite aggressive. This is appropriate for my target audience; the Indie/rock genre tend to have this in their magazine articles. My article is aimed at both genders and late teens/young adults. This has been made clear because of the choice of topic is appropriate for both genders and the, text is acceptable for the age range.
My article goes over 2 and a half double page spreads, that all have full bleed images. These images inside creates an personal relationships between the magazine and the buyer. By having a interview of Charlotte Young's gig inside GRANITE, allows the reader to find out everyone's opinion on Young and not just GRANITE. It also gives the readers something to laugh at and some factual information.
For the appearance of my magazine, I decided to make my GRANITE have a very unique, professional, grungy and edgy look. The house-style of my magazine is red, white, purple and black - colours which connote power, royalty, love and passion - all of which I believe my magazine has. Red is also a very gender neutral colour and highlights the beauty and loyalty of the magazine. Red appeals greatly to the audience therefore making it look professional and attractive to the buyer. This gives the magazine a style that people will remember and look for in the future, especially on shelves as it is very eye-catching. I decided to add some purple into my magazine so that it was a little more unique then all of the other Indie/rock magazine out there today.
I mainly have attracted my audience into my magazine by advertising well known bands and artists as sell-lines on the front cover. This will make my reader want to pick up my magazine and want to have a look inside.
By using all of my own images, It really gave the magazine a real and genuine look. Using photographs I took myself at Reading Festival this year. These images immediately inform the reader of the sort of concerts which will be discussed, whilst also indicating that the magazine interacts with the audience and credits the gig-goers by using their images - a lot of people are interested in being featured on GRANITE'S instagram account for their own personal taken images therefore using this feature has created a unique selling point for my magazine which attracts my audience.
In earlier blog posts, I mentioned using new media to attract my specific target audience as through research I discovered that my target audience are thoroughly engaged with spending the majoirty of their time online on social networking websites such as Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. I have taken to these social networking websites by creating accounts with them to promote the magazine further. This enables the audience to stay involved constantly with the magazine and increase personal relationships with GRANITE and help them to gain more information. I have advertised GRANITE'S website on each double page spread in my magazine and also included their Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Facebook account.
Wednesday 26 February 2014
Process of change throughout my contents page
 |
| Left hand side is a close up of a part of my contents page, on the right hand side i have displayed the changes. |
I decided to make some small changes within the layout of my contents page,
firstly I've added some images of some artists i have talked about on the front
cover and the band index. This has mainly been done to attract the audience
into buying my magazine more. I needed to add a range of different images with
different models to make my magazine more realistic and professional. There was
too much space on my first contents page that needed to be filled up. If you're
paying £4.50 for my magazine it has to be at a high professional standard with
good quality images and layout. From my audience feed back of my first draft
the audience picked up on my contents page not having a subscription box, I
have now created one on my final contents page. This will appeal to my target
audience because, they'll be paying £1.50 extra but the magazine will be
delivered directly to their front door. So they will have to receive it every
month. This is extremely beneficial for GRANITE; we'll receive more money and
have people having to receive our magazine for at least one year through a
subscription.
Another change that has been made on my contents page is adding one more sell line on the 'On the cover' this has been done because it was something that i had displayed to the audience on the front of my magazine but I had forgotten to include it underneath this heading.
Another change that has been made on my contents page is adding one more sell line on the 'On the cover' this has been done because it was something that i had displayed to the audience on the front of my magazine but I had forgotten to include it underneath this heading.
Tuesday 18 February 2014
Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
During the creation of my product I used a range of different technologies
in order to produce a professional magazine. The first technology I used was
InDesign, which I was new to, to create a basic template of what my magazine
would look like. After gathering ideas from several other music magazines I
decided to go with three columns of writing on my first double page spread.
InDesign made this decision an easy one for me to carry out, as they feature a
tool which enables you to carry text on across columns. As my article was
already written, this made it a quick and efficient start, as I simply copied
and pasted the text in. I drew out boxes on my contents page, ready for text
and images to be inserted later, and did the same on my front cover. I used the
master page to create professional details such as the Twitter account featured
at the top of each page and my magazines website at the bottom of
each page. The master page allows you to add any text or images you
would like to feature in the same place on every page, which makes the magazine
overall look more professional as everything is in its place. I used the master
page to also create banners on the top and bottom of each page along with page
numbers. Although when I started, I was not familiar with all of the tools
however now I feel like I have learnt about the programme and feel much more
confident with using it.
I carried out two photo-shoots using my Cannon SLR because this is my own camera I know exactly how to use it and felt very confident that my images where going to turn out how I wanted. The fact this my camera is digital is another helpful factor as I was able to take hundreds of photos and also check over them, deleting those I did not feel where appropriate for my magazine genre. I used this camera when taking photos of my model up in Camden and Shoreditch; most of my images where taken in good lighting as I when out at around midday, I decided that I didn’t need to take any photos in the end on an white back drop. Because my magazine is aimed at people who enjoy indie/rock music I wanted the backgrounds all to be bright, bold and patterned. My photographs still looked extremely professional even though I didn’t use any trigger lighting, where bright lights flashed in sync to when I took a photograph.
I was then able to transfer the photos from the camera to my computer by inserting the memory card into a USB, which allowed me to save them onto my computer very quickly.
After taking a range of photos I then edited them, so they were appropriate for use in my magazine. To remove the background from the photos, I used the colour range tool in Photoshop, which I feel I am rather experienced with as I’ve used this tool several times before in previous coursework. After doing so, I adjusted lighting levels on the photos so that they were either brighter or darker, depending on my preference which varied from photo to photo. On my front cover I kept the whole image behind the title apart from my models head, this was tricky to do as I had never edited a photograph like this before. All I had to do was copy the image, then rub out all of it apart from the head and then paste it back on top.
I have also used other forms of technologies to construct my product, mainly the internet, by making use of many sites available to me. Blogger, however, has been one of the largest contributors to the production of my magazine as it allowed me to document every stage of the production process and also let me constantly update my ideas, in my draft posts, before publishing them. Survey Monkey allowed me to create surveys to hand out to my target audience in order to gain information on what they would enjoy reading in my magazine, whilst Google supplied me with images and information about previous music magazines and their distributors. Google has also allowed me to collect images that inspired my photo shoot, or magazine in general, and post these to my blog in the form of a mood board.
I carried out two photo-shoots using my Cannon SLR because this is my own camera I know exactly how to use it and felt very confident that my images where going to turn out how I wanted. The fact this my camera is digital is another helpful factor as I was able to take hundreds of photos and also check over them, deleting those I did not feel where appropriate for my magazine genre. I used this camera when taking photos of my model up in Camden and Shoreditch; most of my images where taken in good lighting as I when out at around midday, I decided that I didn’t need to take any photos in the end on an white back drop. Because my magazine is aimed at people who enjoy indie/rock music I wanted the backgrounds all to be bright, bold and patterned. My photographs still looked extremely professional even though I didn’t use any trigger lighting, where bright lights flashed in sync to when I took a photograph.
I was then able to transfer the photos from the camera to my computer by inserting the memory card into a USB, which allowed me to save them onto my computer very quickly.
After taking a range of photos I then edited them, so they were appropriate for use in my magazine. To remove the background from the photos, I used the colour range tool in Photoshop, which I feel I am rather experienced with as I’ve used this tool several times before in previous coursework. After doing so, I adjusted lighting levels on the photos so that they were either brighter or darker, depending on my preference which varied from photo to photo. On my front cover I kept the whole image behind the title apart from my models head, this was tricky to do as I had never edited a photograph like this before. All I had to do was copy the image, then rub out all of it apart from the head and then paste it back on top.
I have also used other forms of technologies to construct my product, mainly the internet, by making use of many sites available to me. Blogger, however, has been one of the largest contributors to the production of my magazine as it allowed me to document every stage of the production process and also let me constantly update my ideas, in my draft posts, before publishing them. Survey Monkey allowed me to create surveys to hand out to my target audience in order to gain information on what they would enjoy reading in my magazine, whilst Google supplied me with images and information about previous music magazines and their distributors. Google has also allowed me to collect images that inspired my photo shoot, or magazine in general, and post these to my blog in the form of a mood board.
Wednesday 15 January 2014
Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back to the preliminary task back, I have a learnt a lot on InDesign since
first using it. In the preliminary task, I used InDesign to create the school
magazine which allowed me to learn and get use to the programme.
InDesign was hard to pick up at
the start; I'm use to using Photoshop, after playing around with all of the
tools after a few lessons I began to pick up the techniques and actually found
it easier than Photoshop. InDesign helped me to create an improved and
professional look. As the whole programme's purpose is to create magazines, it
was clear as to why we should use it - there are a wide variety of tools to use
opposed to Photoshop where there are only the minority. When it came to taking
images for my preliminary task, they didn't look professional as they had been
taken on my phones camera. I didn’t think through props and angles of the
camera. The photographs where just quickly taken. I decided to make my magazine
mainly dedicated to the schools canteen. I had a few close up of the food, the
front cover is a mid-shot of the canteen staff and some student.
The photos, finalise the whole magazine and if you end up with an awful set of photos then it will highly influence how professional and successful your magazine becomes. When it came to my real photo shoot, I prepared a lot beforehand unlike how I did for my preliminary task as I wasn't very prepared at all. I planned out exactly what photos I wanted and planned all of the outfits, make-up location and hair looks beforehand so I knew what my cover and overall magazine would roughly look like. I took over 100 images in total, so I had a wide variety to choose from in contrast to the preliminary task where I only took around 10 photos in total. Since the preliminary task I have become more confident on InDesign as I have learn what most of tools do and incorporated my new knowledge in my music magazine. I’m now better at using InDesign than I am Photoshop.
You can see form the preliminary magazine and my music magazine that the preliminary task lacks realism unlike my music magazine which looks similar to something you would find on the shelves of today. My progress mainly came from looking at a huge variety of real music magazines and using their codes and conventions and adapting them to my style of music. This meant that I was sure that my magazine would be as successful as other top magazines on the market. Such as Kerrang, NME and The Rolling Stones. The main skill that I gained between making my preliminary task and the music magazine was time, I had two months to completely finish my music magazine; this gave me much more time than the preliminary task as I only had two weeks for that. Because I had such a long time with working on my magazine I became very fluent with all of the InDesign tools and began to pick up new technique each time using the software. When creating my preliminary task my InDesign skills weren’t very good as this was the first time at using the software and I also only had two weeks. Comparing both magazines you can see a significant improvement throughout the months of how I have learnt to use the tools and display that strongly within my magazine GRANITE.
Planning also made a huge difference when it came to the whole creation of my music magazine. When we created the preliminary magazine, we weren't given a lot of time to plan, prepare and organise exactly what we wanted our magazine to look like, or plan the features such as the images, sell lines and location. When I planned for my music magazine, I made sure that I had a list of contents ideas, sell lines and a well-written article as well as a draft drawing of the front cover as I didn't want to fall back into the same hole that I had with my preliminary magazine. This meant that the content of my magazine fitted in very well and effectively with the genre and overall vibe of my magazine. Overall, I definitely learnt how to enhance the magazine's quality and professionalism opposed to my initial school magazine for my preliminary task.
As you can see from the comparison of my two front covers, the preliminary magazine lacks realism unlike my music magazine which looks extremely professional. My progress mainly came from looking at a huge variety of real music magazines and using their codes and conventions and adapting them to my style of music. This meant that I was sure that my magazine would be as successful as other top magazines on the market. The main skill that i gained between making my preliminary task and the real thing.
Planning also made a huge difference when it came to the whole creation of my music magazine. When we created the preliminary magazine, we weren't given a lot of time to plan, prepare and organise exactly what we wanted our magazine to look like, or plan the features such as the images, sell lines etc. When I planned for my music magazine, I made sure that I had a list of contents ideas, sell lines and a well-written article as well as a draft drawing of the front cover as I didn't want my magazine to end up not looking professional and being successful, like my preliminary magazine. This meant that the content of my magazine fitted in very well and effectively with my target audience to this genre of music.
The photos, finalise the whole magazine and if you end up with an awful set of photos then it will highly influence how professional and successful your magazine becomes. When it came to my real photo shoot, I prepared a lot beforehand unlike how I did for my preliminary task as I wasn't very prepared at all. I planned out exactly what photos I wanted and planned all of the outfits, make-up location and hair looks beforehand so I knew what my cover and overall magazine would roughly look like. I took over 100 images in total, so I had a wide variety to choose from in contrast to the preliminary task where I only took around 10 photos in total. Since the preliminary task I have become more confident on InDesign as I have learn what most of tools do and incorporated my new knowledge in my music magazine. I’m now better at using InDesign than I am Photoshop.
You can see form the preliminary magazine and my music magazine that the preliminary task lacks realism unlike my music magazine which looks similar to something you would find on the shelves of today. My progress mainly came from looking at a huge variety of real music magazines and using their codes and conventions and adapting them to my style of music. This meant that I was sure that my magazine would be as successful as other top magazines on the market. Such as Kerrang, NME and The Rolling Stones. The main skill that I gained between making my preliminary task and the music magazine was time, I had two months to completely finish my music magazine; this gave me much more time than the preliminary task as I only had two weeks for that. Because I had such a long time with working on my magazine I became very fluent with all of the InDesign tools and began to pick up new technique each time using the software. When creating my preliminary task my InDesign skills weren’t very good as this was the first time at using the software and I also only had two weeks. Comparing both magazines you can see a significant improvement throughout the months of how I have learnt to use the tools and display that strongly within my magazine GRANITE.
Planning also made a huge difference when it came to the whole creation of my music magazine. When we created the preliminary magazine, we weren't given a lot of time to plan, prepare and organise exactly what we wanted our magazine to look like, or plan the features such as the images, sell lines and location. When I planned for my music magazine, I made sure that I had a list of contents ideas, sell lines and a well-written article as well as a draft drawing of the front cover as I didn't want to fall back into the same hole that I had with my preliminary magazine. This meant that the content of my magazine fitted in very well and effectively with the genre and overall vibe of my magazine. Overall, I definitely learnt how to enhance the magazine's quality and professionalism opposed to my initial school magazine for my preliminary task.
As you can see from the comparison of my two front covers, the preliminary magazine lacks realism unlike my music magazine which looks extremely professional. My progress mainly came from looking at a huge variety of real music magazines and using their codes and conventions and adapting them to my style of music. This meant that I was sure that my magazine would be as successful as other top magazines on the market. The main skill that i gained between making my preliminary task and the real thing.
Planning also made a huge difference when it came to the whole creation of my music magazine. When we created the preliminary magazine, we weren't given a lot of time to plan, prepare and organise exactly what we wanted our magazine to look like, or plan the features such as the images, sell lines etc. When I planned for my music magazine, I made sure that I had a list of contents ideas, sell lines and a well-written article as well as a draft drawing of the front cover as I didn't want my magazine to end up not looking professional and being successful, like my preliminary magazine. This meant that the content of my magazine fitted in very well and effectively with my target audience to this genre of music.
Wednesday 8 January 2014
Props and costume
This task is another part of planning on what I would like to be featured in my magazine. This specific task I believe is important readers will only buy the magazine if it appealing to them. In aiding my final product, I know strongly what props I will be using as well as the outfits which will similar. These are important features as they can portray easily the magazine.
Tuesday 7 January 2014
Contact Sheet
This has allowed me to view all of my images in a small format to pick what images I like best for my final creation. After producing my contact sheet using Photoshop, I decided to print of my contact sheet and by using a magnifying glass I could clearly see the detail within all my images and able to pick my favourite outcomes.
I decided to do so, as seen in many other professional photoshoots, this technique is used to be able to demonstrate how the image will look once printed out in a real life copy of the magazine. After doing so, it was clear that several of the images would be suitable for my magazine by attracting my target audience and suiting the genre of my magazine through the clothing and body language shown.
From my contact sheet it is clear that I have used a range of shots from close-ups to long shots, moreover the use of outfits I have used and facial expressions/body language from my model make it clear what type of magazine I have created. Although nearly all of my photos were appropriate to use in my actual product, some were harder to edit due to the background being patterned and very detailed therefore were not included in the final production.
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