MEDIA PIECES

When deciding on the layout, fonts and colour schemes of my magazine I took into account the conventions of current music magazines. I made sure that my magazine was similar to popular music magazines by using similar page layouts for the front cover, contents page and double page spread. as you can see on my font cover I made sure that the masthead was situated in the top right of my magazine cover, as this is where music magazines normally have their masthead situated. Furthermore on most music magazines the main image on the front cover takes up the whole page and is normally bold and striking. On my magazine cover I decided to use the idea of having the main image spread across the whole of the front cover as I feel that this gives the magazine a more professional look. The image I used on the front cover of my magazine is a mid shot however, this is not always the convention for magazines. Many music magazines often use whole-body shots of a particular band or artist, or they tend to use close ups of an artists face as this can convey emotion through to the readers. I chose to take a different approach to the image on my front cover as I decided a mid shot would suit my magazine cover better. I felt that it was very important that I used a mid shot on my front cover as it allows the reader to understand the characteristics of the main artist, due to the clothes she is wearing and the guitar she is holding. Furthermore throughout all three pages of my magazine I tried my hardest to keep the colour and font scheme similar throughout. This was an essential aspect of my magazine as hardly any professional magazines use different fonts and colour schemes throughout their pages. I decided on a simple colour scheme of light blue, black and white. I thought that I would be best to keep the colour scheme simple as I feel that my target audience would be more likely to purchase a more sophisticated looking magazine apposed to a magazine with a range of bold, bright colours. The font which I used on my front cover for my masthead I tried to get as close as font as possible for my contents and double page spread, although I didn’t want to copy the font that I used on my front cover. I had trouble on deciding what fonts to use within my contents and double page spread as I wanted to keep the theme of the magazine simple however, I did change the fonts of the headlines of the contents and double page spread a number of times before finally deciding. The hardest part about choosing the font was the fact that magazines chose to use simple and sophisticated fonts where as when I was looking through the fonts on the internet I liked the look of the more “fun” looking fonts where as I had to decide on a better font that was more suitable for my magazine. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

My magazine is aimed at teenagers and young adults(16-21). This was a reasonably easy audience to aim my music magazine at as the majority of music magazines available are aimed at this age group. However, many of these popular magazines represent teenagers in a stereotypical light, for example many of the magazines a based around rap music and therefore the images on the front covers and throughout the magazines are usually of a group of “lads”, who are wearing hoodies and are photographed hanging around on the streets. In my magazine I wanted to destroy the stereotypical representation of teenagers and I tried to do this through the use of the images I used throughout the magazine. The min way which I was able to destroy this stereotypical representation of teenagers was to show the genre of music through the main image on the front cover of my magazine. I was certain that I wanted to use a female for my images as most of the popular music magazines available, use males on the front covers of their magazines. Furthermore on my contents and double page spread I also based the main images on females for example the main image of my double page spread and I also made sure that I included a range of female images on my contents page. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

PUBLISHING: The publisher that I will use to publish my magazine would be IPC media. I have decided on this as they are one of the leading media institutions in the UK. Because IPC are such a big company their will be a vast range of advertising options available, which will be easier and cheaper to advertise with the help and resources of such a big media institution. DISTRIBUTION: The main type of distribution would be via the internet and through the Apple app store, I think that this will be the most appropriate method of distribution as over the last few years many young adults and teenagers are becoming more reliable on mobile phones and tablets, and therefore are more likely to download a magazine from the internet rather than go out to a shop and purchase a hard copy. By distributing my magazine online I will be keeping up with the other magazine competitors, as most magazines are now available to download from the internet. However, as well as the main source of online distribution I shall also distribute my magazine through news agents and large supermarket chains. I will use this method of distribution as well as online distributing as some teenagers and young adults may prefer to purchase a hard copy of a magazine. As well as this some may not be able to afford an apple iphone or ipad and therefore this will allow them to be able to read the magazine. WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

I aimed my magazine at teenagers and young adults (age 16-21). I have tried to aim my magazine at both males and females however, this is quite hard when deciding on whether a male or female image should be on my front cover as my main image. However, my magazine is only showing one issue and therefore the other future issues will also appeal to the male market. by aiming my magazine at both genders it has allowed me to branch into other genres of music which I have included in my magazine, therefore this helps it to appeal to both male and female readers. To try and target this issue of my magazine at male readers as well as female I have incorporated a range of genres and artists into the font and contents page e.g. Bastille and Pharrell Williams, as both of these artists are currently in the chart and are known to have both a female and male fanbase. WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

LANGUAGE: In my magazine I decided to use informal language to address my audience, as I feel that this was the best way to catch their attention. I feel that if the language is too formal then the audience will not be able to connect with the articles in the magazine and the magazine itself. Finally by using informal language the text is instantly made more exciting and more tolerable to read. IMAGES: The images I have included in my magazine have all been chosen as I feel that they engage the audience with the magazine, for example the image on the front cover of my magazine is of a teenager, which is in the same age group as the target audience. Furthermore the images on my contents page are all of popular artists and groups, which will entice my audience to read on as they will be interested in most of the articles in the magazine. HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT? I used a digital camera to take all of the photos that I have used in my magazine, as the quality of the images was much better than images taken on my mobile phone. I had used a digital camera many times before starting my media course work and therefore I was very comfortable with all of the settings and controls on the camera. From using the digital camera in my coursework I have learnt that the lighting of the photo has a huge effect on the final quality of the image and therefore when using the digital camera I had to make sure that the lighting, especially for pictures taken outdoors was correct. As a result of this the images looked more professional. I used InDesign when creating my double page spread. I found InDesign the hardest programme to use when designing my double page spread as I had never used it before. I think that I also found it the hardest programme to use as there are so many functions and buttons that I was not sure how to use. Although I did find it very hard to get used to all of the function at the beginning I know feel that my knowledge and use of the programme has defiantly improved a considerable amount. Now that I am more confident with using InDesign I will be able to carry n using the software in the future for any other projects or editing that I wish to carry out. When producing my coursework I defiantly enjoyed using Photoshop more than InDesign as I had previously used it a few times and therefore I was more comfortable with the functions and I understood how to get the results that I wanted from the software. However, I did have thing that I wanted to do to the photo that I didn’t know how to carry out on Photoshop, to resolve this issue, I decided to download Photoshop onto my laptop at home in order to give me some extra time to find out where all of the functions were located on the programme.

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT? I feel that when starting my media coursework with my school magazine I had very limited knowledge of Photoshop and its possible functions, and this defiantly reflects in my school magazine cover and contents page, as well as this my school magazine didn’t look professional due to the fact that I had not yet learnt about all of the functions tat I could have made use of in my school magazine. Comparing my school magazine to my final music magazine cover I can defiantly see that my editing and organising techniques have improved a reasonable amount, from the colour schemes to the choice of text and font, there has defiantly been some big improvements made. As well as this the quality of the mages I have taken has defiantly improved as I made sure that practised taking photos with different backgrounds and lighting in order to find with setting would be the best for my final music magazine.