During my preliminary task I was able to learn techniques and skills which helped me to produce my main media product which included; planning, organisation of time, photography skills, magazine conventions, post-production methods and a deeper consideration of target audience.
One of my main issues with completing work is planning and time keeping; by using these in my preliminary task I was able to set myself up for the main piece by allowing myself enough time for ideas (setting personal deadlines etc...) so that my work was to the best of my ability.
When using the DSLR cameras for my preliminary magazine front cover I found that I could experiment with ideas and methods of photography; thus setting myself up for the main task where I used the skills I had learnt and been taught previously - lighting in particular was an interest to me as well as costume and background, so I was able to experiment with the mise-en-scene.
Previously we had explored and researched current music magazines which allowed us to understand the different formats and target audiences - I think this was probably the most important factor of research; given that if we had never seen a music magazine we most likely would have ended up with something that was not in any way acceptable.
Amongst the many elements I discovered during my preliminary task the second most important was definitely post-production; here we learnt about Photoshop, Quark Express and publishing skills in general. From looking at other magazines for inspiration (and our own ideas) we considered target audiences in a much more detailed way; we didn't just go: "17, indie" it was more complicated than that (as I hope my target audience research shows). Looking back on my work, I believe that the biggest factor I learnt about was probably photography skills; which I imagine is because it is something I have a further interest in as well as being a practical learning skill - I hope these skills shall help me with other projects, whether they be for photography or film.
When I started creating my magazine I used three key technologies which I had used and learnt about from previous tasks (such as constructing a front page and contents for a magazine in groups or pairs). In order to create these we used Photoshop to edit the photos and our front page and Quark Express to develop our contents page; so naturally when it came to constructing our own magazine we had a relatively decent understanding of the technologies. We also used a DSLR camera for our photographs, which required learning about different settings and other such information.
Of course went it came to our own magazine despite the help we had had we were still some what left to fend for ourselves; we had to use our initiative and bite the bullet. Once I had set up the layout for my magazine I set out to take photos; this involved using a studio, taking on the wilderness and experimenting in an incredibly cluttered bedroom. By using a studio I was able to learn in more detail about lighting and shadows - whilst taking pictures of two musicians I also experimented by taking a bedside lamp and wrapping it in a orange plastic bag to ejected a warm glow onto my models (although these pictures where never used because they did not fit into the colour scheme). This new technology of which I have discovered has enabled me to complete a reasonable looking magazine and achieve my aims - to be honest, anyone could produce some decent material with the technology we have used and I hope my magazine shows this.
Blogspot was something I was previously familiar with before starting this course so the process of blogging was relatively simple although I still learnt tiny little things about it (such as displaying all your blogs on one page). However, Slideshare was a website of which I had no idea about; so I certainly learnt something there - although luckily it wasn't rocket science. I also used Youtube at several points in my blog (embedding links and such) I even uploaded my own video which I had edited on my laptop - these being elements I had learnt from past adventures and projects I had created in Film Studies. I believe that all these technologies have allowed me to display my Media work in a new, accessible and interesting way; as appose to producing endless essays.
The demographic for my magazine was always going to be young male and females (prodimantely male) around the age of 18-26, who enjoy themselves in an alternative style. When it came to physchographics I imagined they would consist of succeeders, radicals, underachievers, materialists and C1 down to E on the old jicnar scale.
In order to attract my target audience I needed to grab their attention with the front cover, of course it had to be specific to their tastes otherwise they would ignore it. To do this I used an entirley minimilistic layout with only what was neccessary to tell the audience - they needed to understand it was a serious magazine, yet enjoyable at the same time. So I used only two coverlines; "The sound of a decade: An investigation into modern music" this showed the audience the magazine's main intention and given the formality of the title they now know it shall be a serious look into music (as continued in the double page spread), but then you get; "Emily Heseltine: 'I tried my hand at music and failed miserably'" the audience can now see the media product also has a sense of humour and will not be all deadly straight faced (we also see this within the Contents). The picture of my cover star was also simplistic and not sexualised, instead it was taken in an artistic fashion - so the audience can see the attention to detail, they know it's not going to be full of paparazzi snaps and glamourous photoshoots (the fact the magazine is free also reinforces this idea of up young artists who don't care about money, just their trade).
To see if my magazine suited my intended audience I posted it onto facebook and wrote the following:
Media C/W: the front page for my magazine.
The target audience is that of an alternative nature who take music seriously but enjoy it at the same time.
If you could please answer the questions I'd be most grateful :)
1. Your initial thoughts and reactions. 2. What kind of audience would this appeal to? 3. Do you think it would suit the intended target audience? 4. Feedback; how could it be improved?
Here are some quotes of my feedback:
"Yes, it seems serious, like its just able to be, and not care about what the mainstream is doing. Something like that."
"Yes, I think it does. It wouldn't appeal to all but I think that's good as you've really narrowed down your market."
"The slightly bizarre intellectual breed who enjoys moving the furniture around in the middle of the night.The type that enjoys to pick up free music magazines knowing full well they will disagree with every review."
From the feedback I have recieve I believe my audience took the preferred reading of the text, because of this I believe my product has been a marvellous success. I believe this must have something to do with my mode of adress, the formality (e.g. "The sound of a decade: An investigation into modern music") and also informality (the use of quotes in the contents page, but this could also be seen as formal so there is a potential oppositinal reading here). There was only one example of aberrant reading; "maybe if there was more subtitles about music it'd be a bit clearer" but the majority understood the text and saw the true target audience. The main positive feedback I recieved was of the minimilistic layout and photograph; " The minimalistic layout and the photograph are intruiging. The use of only two main articles makes you want to read through and understand more about the magazine."
Given the current stereotypical view of youth today (violent, sex mad and anti-social hoodies or middle class, clarinet playing and ‘Skins’ watching teens) I wanted to show the positive working class side of youth; people who are actually trying to make something of themselves – people who find relief through music.
Male or female?
I think my magazine would predominately appeal to males considering it includes quite a few masculine bands – although I photographed a strong female cover star in order to retain balance, so my magazine could appeal to a wider demographic.
Challenging of dominant ideologies
I believe my media product challenge ideologies by showing young people as hopeful and talented individuals with a future as appose to the Daily Mails ideal of “yobs” destroying Britain. This can be shown in the pictures which I took; for example a young man in a hoodie outside playing the trumpet – it’s an alternative representation. The individuals are darkly dressed yet they are surrounded by light which connotes enlightenment and hope.
My cover star is a young female artist who is not being sexualised – and for a magazine which is mainly for males this is breaking the status quo. I was trying to give a positive representation of women by showing a strong, alternative and intelligent lady on my front cover – she is in black and completely neutral, she is a better role model than mainstream music offers us nowadays.
To start out I created a folder called 'Preliminary project' within my Media Studies folder so I would know exactly where all my work is and have somewhere to store it.
Front page: Layout and font - developed in Photoshop. Images shall be added once they have been taken, the images shall determine the colour scheme (e.g. black background on photo - black background on the rest of front page). I decided the price of the magazine to be £3.99, but I am considering giving it away for free.
Contents page: I created my contents page layout on QuarkXPress and go my fonts from http://www.dafont.com/ (as I did with my front page and double page spread). This is only the basics and I shall add to it once I have taken my photographs - I imagine the color scheme to be simple (black & white).
Double page spread: I developed my double page spead on QuarkXPress and have gone for a simple structure and layout. I have came up with my title ('The sound of a decade') and sub-title ('What noise will define the new era in a society where everything has been done') although these may change towards the deadline and after I have written the article. Once again the colour scheme shall be simple (black & white).
I posted my mood board onto Facebook and tagged a lot of different people who I asked to answer 4 questions:
1. Do you like the images displayed? What does it say to you? 2. What kind of audience do you think this would appeal to? 3. Would you read this magazine? 4. Any general feedback, criticisms or ideas on how it could be improved?
The majority of my feedback was positive, they like the images and felt it portrayed "community, art and music" as well as showing a "specific genre." They mostly agreed on the type of audience; "Hedonists, indie trend and the kind of people that don't like to follow the mainstream" and also "People who like to be noticed/make an impact or statement."
From the comments I recieved a lot said they would read a few said they would have a quick gander and two said that they would not because the images (music/films) did not appeal to them.
Although it was mostly positive feedback I did get a huge amount of negative from two people, they found the images "dark and very busy. They seem noticably indie. The "Sheep Music" thing suggests that they are well-known/a lot of people follow them." When it came to improvemeants they thought that I should make the images "more similar." However, by doing this I believe I would start heading towards a mainstream direction which is the opposite of what I want, if anything, this is feedback from a specific audience who I never thought would be interested in this magazine - all they're doing is confirming my doubts. Also, I really don't want people who "doesn't like that kind of music or Steve McQueen" reading this magazine - how could someone hate Steve McQueen?
The audience for my magazine shall consist of 18-26 year old Male and female (but predominately male) succeeders, radicals, underachievers, materialists, hedonists and C1 down to E in the jicnars scale.
I imagine these people to be liberalistic independent thinkers who don’t live by the mainstream and challenge dominant ideologies, with a unique fashion sense and a cultured knowledge of the art forms (mainly music, film and fashion).
I consider the sort of people who read this magazine will tend to be shall be varied in employment; they may be artists (musicians, filmmakers, photographers etc…) or simply office workers and ordinary people longing for a change in culture. Their money would be spent on music, clothes, cinema/theatre going, alcohol and a minimalist life style – I don’t imagine they’re the sort of people who need that brand new phone or MP3 player or television.
These are the people who enjoy independent and unsigned music which isn’t mainstream – something they can discover themselves. They would also go to watch independent/foreign films and professional plays (as well as small/local). Although, I imagine they’d also go to see mainstream bands/films and perhaps enjoy them – or criticise them highly. These people live to have a good time and enjoy themselves in an alternative style.
From the magazines that I have researched I have discovered one consistent point; they all use marketing strategies. By this I mean each magazine has a selected target audience, whether it is young female girls who like mainstream popular music or middle aged men who enjoy avant garde jazz. These strategies are carefully laid out so that the language is appropriate as well as content, artists, photographs, even the colour schemes and layouts. So, for example, say if I was going to create a music magazine for 8-14 year old girls, I’d make sure my front cover was bold, fast and had a lot on it (in order to secure something for everyone – nothing can be dull) with a colour scheme of pink, yellow and black. The artists in the magazine would also have to be people relevant to their popular culture (Girls Aloud, Alexandra Burke, Zac Efron etc...) as well as the advertisement – video games for girls, popular films such as High School Musical and fashion for young girls which allows them to dress like their favourite celebrities and so on.
I found that these types of magazines weren’t truly representing the format they were displaying; they don’t want to challenge the dominant ideology because they’re just pawns for the publishing industries, whose main objection is to make money and expand their power.
However, after reading through The Wire I realised that there are some exceptions – here’s a magazine which is devoted to the art form, it genuinely cares about modern independent music and its future. Like all the best things in the world, it doesn’t care about money. I also found the layouts, content and photographs topped anything I had previously seen, it’s carefully developed and almost a piece of art in itself - this is what I want people to feel when reading my magazine.
My two main influences are; The Wire (it's formality and simplicity) and Vice Magazine (it's shock value and bluntness).
A magazine publisher has the job of producing an entire magazine; they direct and observe the
process and stages of development in order to make sure everything comes together in perfect harmony. Some of these processes include; copyediting, graphic design, printing etc...
The publishing industry is organised through media ownership; magazines, newspapers, television channels etc... All these are owned by conglomerates which control what these products publish and display. For example, in the United Kingdom one of the biggest owners of media outlets is Rupert Murdoch, who controls major tabloids and broadsheets (including The Sun, The Times and The Daily Mail) as well as television services such as SkyTV. Many people have issues with this fact which is why there are independent and alternative publishing, something the internet has helped to grow.
The New Musical Express magazine (or NME) is generally considered to be the voice of new, fresh and independent music in a society dominated by the mainstream (or at least it was in its early years), however, the fact that this magazine is owned by IPC (a major publishing industry) suggests otherwise. Evidence of this can be discovered through the advertisement we see in the magazine, for example; Shockwave hair gel sponsors them (as well as their awards show), HMV (a mainstream music seller) is also advertised within the magazine, we also see synergy being used – films advertised, film soundtracks, and even books. If you take a look on the IPC website, they put their magazines into audience profiles, age range etc... It’s not at all about music, it’s all about money.
The fact that NME is published by IPC doesn’t come as much of a shock, I’ve never considered the magazine to be at all radical, underground or independent (I think this is partly because of the amount of advertising you find in it). The ownership of NME suggests that the actual of function of this magazine is to make money and to advertise other industries (film, television, video games etc...) even the music published within the magazine is relatively audience friendly, there’s nothing here that’s going to stir up the hive. They are clearly using a well devised and choreographed business structure which is aimed at a certain demographic of Britain; 16-21 year old middle/upper class “indie” teenagers who spend their life on Facebook, watching Skins and Misfits, listening to Vampire Weekend whilst taking legal highs at the Reading Festival in their skinny jeans, tank tops and £150 trainers and declaring (in their fake accents) David Cameron to be Britain’s answer to Barack Obama, until they catch an STD and eventually die in a motorcycling incident.
One of the magazines I have researched into is Q who are part of a horizontally integrated media conglomerate - Bauer Media Group (based in Germany) who also publish Kerrang magazine, as well as broadcasting music channels such as 4Music, Smash Hits TV, Kiss TV and many more.
From the business structures I have seen, it would appear that the best way for a magazine to gain recognition and make money is to set a precise target audience – you need to establish exactly who your magazine is for. Once this is completed you can decide on what type of material you would use, the right advertisement used (e.g. a sports magazine could advertise Nike, energy drinks, sport video games etc...) the right celebrities and so on. Also, being owned by a major publishing industry would boost your exposure, through television and the internet – the internet plays a huge part in securing a magazines success.
Genre: Avant garde, jazz, experimental, hip hop, modern classical, free improvisation, post-rock and electronic.
Audience: Male and female 20-30 year olds who would consist of succeeders, radicals and underachievers. These people’s social values would include hedonism and post-modernism and I think on the jicnars scale they would range from E (unemployed) right up to A (higher managerial, administrative or professional).
Title: Having a title like The Wire suggests electricity; fast, modern and edgy – the type of music they’re displaying, it’s all modern and going somewhere. I imagine the kind of people that read this magazine are pretty damn cool, and that’s what I think this title is, cool. Also, I think it’s quite profound, not simple and straight to the point (such as New Musical Express) they’re trying to make you think. A magazine for intellectual/modern/avant garde/non-mainstream artists needs an unusual and edgy title.
Style: The layout used for the front page is incredibly minimal and simplistic, there’s nothing there that doesn’t need to be there; it’s a beautifully choreographed piece. The colour scheme consists of black, white and blue – the single blue word echoing the fashion choice of the artist. The font is a plain sans serif and the masthead is huge and bold, abbreviating the title to simply, “WIRE.”
Content: In this type of magazine you’d expect to find articles about completely unknown modern artists, you’d expect to find brand new musicians you’ve never heard of in each issue. These wouldn’t be any ordinary mainstream artists, they’d be experimental musicians who challenge the dominant ideologies of what modern music should sound like – people who treat music as an art form, not a money making machine. The variation of genre is also endless, there’s something for almost everyone and this can only widen the magazines demographic.
Mode of address: When it comes to addressing the audience, The Wire does what many music magazines don’t; they treat their audience as intellectuals. It’s a formally written magazine for a modern day format which is often consider to be (as Theodore Adorno once said) formulaic, simplistic and emotive – modern music depoliticising humans with its pseudo-individualist artists. The Wire takes modern music seriously, understanding its significance; it does what Cahiers du Cinema did for French cinema and what Sight & Sound keeps on doing for World cinema. The magazine features long and in depth articles about the music they have heard, comparing, contrasting and discussing its importance - reviews don’t have star ratings, they expect their audience to actually want to read about an album. It is what NME once was and would like to think it still is, but, quite frankly, nowadays it’s meaningless.
Photographs: The pictures taken and used for The Wire are very stylish and carefully developed; you wouldn’t find a quick/digital paparazzi snap, these look like pictures taken by artists of artists. The majority of pictures are shots of the musicians at work, whether it is in the studio or performing live, yet they are still professional and serious. So, because of this they are represented as serious and professional workers, who consider their job to of upmost importance, which is what this magazine and its readers consider modern music to be. Whereas a magazine like Top of the Pops includes images of film stars and other celebrities, The Wire only includes pictures of musicians and other people involved in the production of music.
Contents page: The contents page used uses three columns, and the only picture used is the same one used on the front cover, everything else is just writing in black & white, apart from the main features which are in blue. It’s all very minimalistic and straightforward, they just want to talk about music.
Double page spreads: The double page spread (just like the rest of the magazine) is simple and sweet, on one side there is a 3 column article and on the other one big picture of the musician in question. Out of all the double page spreads I’ve seen, although they have been similar, I think this one stands out – the whole thing just comes together so beautifully.
An example of the kind of music featured in The Wire:
Audience: Female children and pre-teens whose psychographics would include traditionalists, underachievers and their social value; post-materialists. When it comes to the jicnars scale I’d put the readers under D (semi and unskilled manual workers) and E (the unemployed).
Title:Top of the Pops is generally considered to be a musical item for younger people, especially before it was cancelled on television. It fits into the genre of pop with incredible ease considering it is literally, Top of the Pops. It’s about the best popular music at the moment, although they do tend to pick child friendly artists.
Style: They use a bright colour scheme of pink, yellow, white and black – pink and yellow used in order to attract a younger female audience. The layout of the front cover is quite cluttered, there’s a lot to look at so that the reader is constantly intrigued and never bored – if you don’t like one thing, move your eyes and you’ll find something. The mast head is blocked by the models head, but Top of the Pops is a recognised name in Britain’s musical media so it doesn’t need to be entirely seen, plus the logo for the BBC is at the top right hand corner – a well trusted name.
Content: In a magazine like Top of the Pops you’d expect to find articles and features about major popular music artists (such as Cheryl Cole, Leona Lewis, Rihanna, JLS etc...). These features are not particularly intellectually challenging, it tends to be gossip on mainstream musicians, interviews about what they do on tour, their favourite food, a harmless and child friendly magazine. They also do features on younger girls which tend to enforce dominant ideologies and safety tips, for example: in one issue, there was a feature told from a young girl’s point of view about how she befriended a boy of the same age online who later turned out to be a 25 year old paedophile. This article ends with a moral message to the magazines demographic about how they should speak to adults, another hint that this is a magazine for female children and pre-teens.
Mode of address: In order to address its audience, Top of the Pops uses very informal language (occasionally words/abbreviations which only a Myspace generation would understand) for example; “OMG! Miley takes us on tour!” and the classic teen girl magazine segment of “CRINGE!” The magazine is using this type of language in order to appeal its target audience, it also seems like they’re treating them like idiots, with the constant explanation marks and arrows pointing towards something on a photo, because you know, no one knows where to find a foot. It also tries to suggest that the celebrities they depict are just like the audience, with a few unglamorous photos, almost to give hope to young and self conscious girls in a world where our media demands perfection, although you could argue that these unglamorous photos suggest that imperfection shall be mocked and laughed at.
Photographs: The people you’ll find in the photos of Top of the Pops are famous pop stars (mainly British and American) taken in studios, but a lot are paparazzi shots on the red carpet. They also show the certain clothing they are wearing, for example a member of JLS has Calvin Klein underwear and Miley Cyrus is wearing a pair of classic converse all stars – the latter being a hugely popular footwear product of young people. The representation of males is largely idiotic fools (unfortunate paparazzi snaps) and objects of attraction (posters towards back, as well as a picture admiring a man’s muscles – they are forcing the dominant ideology of heterosexuality upon young female minds). However, females are represented as strong, independent and loving people, for example; Cheryl Cole telling us of her struggle in her early life, but how she overcame it successfully, they’re representing these women as potential role models, women who followed their dreams: “I always kept my eye on the dream.”
Contents page: This magazine doesn’t actually have an official contents page, but instead, because there is so much on the front cover, they put the page number next to each segment.
Double page spreads: As appose to using double page spreads, Top of the Pops uses a lot of centre spreads, in which images and paragraphs are in the middle moving onto both pages. When they do use double page spreads, they have one big image taking up an entire page and an article using three columns on the other.
An example of the kind of music Top of the Pops writes about:
Audience: 21 – 35, succeeders, carers, traditionalists (psychographics) as well as post-materialists (social values). JICNAR SCALE: B – Intermediate managerial, administrative and professional (GPs, teachers) / C1 – Supervisory, clerical, junior administrative or professional (work in offices).
Title: Simple, no stupid titles or puns – just straight to the point. Also a well know and trusted name.
Style: A red, black and white colour scheme (simple) with the known Q logo at the top left hand corner. Layout quite plain – established magazine doesn’t need to really capture the audience’s attention because it already has a group dedicated readers.
Content: You’d expect to find features and articles about classic artists (Paul McCartney, Robert Plant) as well as other major/mainstream more recent artists (Kings of Leon, Lily Allen). Quite often issues featuring things like ‘Top 50 greatest albums of all time’ or ‘100 greatest songs of the decade’ etc…
Mode of address: Q uses a simple and straightforward language in order to appeal to its demographic and also a wider audience; anybody could pick it up and understand what they’re blabbing on about. They also quote interviews with artists (normally something a bit extreme or unusual) in order to attract the reader, for example; “I save all my beard clippings in a bag to send to Neil Tennant” – Brandon Flowers. These quotes often sum up that person and their style of music e.g. When you think of Billie Joe Armstrong, you think of his band and lyrics which are strongly against the old republican government, so they use this quote: “If I went for a beer with Bush, hopefully I’d have a gun on me.” Very funny, even if it does contradict everything he supposedly believes in, but what else could you expect from a sell out?
Photographs: The photographs within Q magazine are pictures of well known and established (sometimes up and coming) British and American musicians, these artists often integrate and have special features where a new artist will interview a “legend” and vice versa. A lot of these pictures are taken in a studio with a simple backdrop (white or black), the musicians don’t tend to smile and look very serious because that’s what Q would like people to think it is; a serious music magazine. This represents the artists in quite a serious, noble and pretentious light; to some they would seem impressive and mighty, but to others they just look ridiculously snobbish and up themselves.
Contents page: The contents page includes or the main artists within its big feature (“Artist of the Century”) it also shows regular features and a special review. At the top right hand corner it displays the front cover and at the bottom right hand corner it reveals a page deep within the actual magazine. Q uses a 3 column contents page.
Double page spreads: One the first page, it includes a big statement in a sans serif font, then three columns of the beginnings of an article. On the second page there is a collage of images representing the Noughties; music, media, politics and so on. It combines simplicity and words with a clash of colour and photographs.
Audience: 16 - 26 year old aspirers and radicals, hedonists and post-modernists.
Main contents: New, up and coming indie bands (from around the world, but mainly english), as well as bigger acts e.g. Lady Gaga, Eminem etc...
Brand identity: An informal magazine for a younger teenage audience who want to hear more underground music but with a sprinkling of mainstream. A magzine for people who enjoy popular music, but don't neccesarily take it seriously.
Title:Classic FM
Audience: 26-50 year old succeeders, carers, traditionalists and achievers.
Main contents: A mixture of classic composers/musicians as well as new and up and coming composers/musicians (new artists playing old music). It looks like they're trying to make classical music (which is generally consider to be something middle/upper class older people listen to) into a "cool, modern and sexy" genre. Which is why you'll find people like Myleene Klass on the front cover - a modern audience recognise her and like her, she appeals to a younger target audience.
Brand identity: A formal and sophisticated magazine for older classical music lovers, but also a magazine for younger students perhaps - this is certainly what the denotations and connotations tell us.
Title: Top of the Pops
Audience: 8-14 year old aspirers and underachievers, post-materialists and hedonists.
Main contents: Mainstream, generic artists produced only to make money - all the artists they use have a squeaky clean image and child friendly lyrics, the chances of finding a band who fight dominant ideologies (e.g. Fucked Up), is hugely improbable. They all fit into Theodore Adorno's idea that the products of the culture industries are formulaic, simplistic and emotive - they are pseudo-individualist artists, produced by major record labels.
Brand identity: A downmarket publication for younger people who enjoy mainstream artists, watch mainstream television (e.g. X Factor) and film.
The main objective of this task is to create the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All content must be original and created by the individual, e.g. photos taken by yourself, arcticle written by yourself etc...
Deadlines:
8th January 2010 - Research and planning
12th January 2010 - Production
12th February 2010 - Post-production
5th March 2010 - Evaluation
I intend to start the work early in order to complete the task on time, efficiently and to a high standard. I hope to produce an imaginative and unique magazine.
One of the main technologies we used and have learnt about from developing our media product is Photoshop. Beforehand I honestly knew nothing about it, but now I'm able to use different tools such as stamp tool, clearing blemishes and maybe even giving the model another piercing. I also learnt through research how professional magazines use Photoshop to make models look more glamorous and sexy, such as making their feet bigger in order to allow their legs to look longer. When we were creating our contents page we used a programme called Quark Express, we use margins, text boxes, pictures, small font etc… All things we had learnt from looking at other contents pages and their layouts; e.g. 2 column contents, 3 column etc… Even though most people know how to use digital cameras for our mid-close up photo we had to learn how to use a professional digital camera which most of us hadn't used before; we looked at the flash, zoom and took practice images so we were able to get a perfect medium-close up of our model. There was also the case of creating files and naming them correctly so we were able to access and find our work quickly and easily. Finally, we created our online blogs on blogspot.com, this is something I had previously used so I was able create my blog and access it quite easily. We put our work on our blogs so we are able to look at older pieces to remind and revise from.
When it comes to social values our audience would be post-modernists, this is because the magazine is for people who like to live for today and enjoy the things they have now, they just want a good time, maybe go to some gigs and have a few drinks. For psychographics, we would include aspirers; people who want to climb up the social scale, buying a magazine about latest music/film/gigs would help you to do this, radicals; people who think they're really individual, our magazine focuses on mainstream and underground music/films, and finally underachievers; people who may be well informed/educated but not very ambitious, sitting around all day, reading a magazine, listening to music and watching films. The age range for our media product would be 16-19, this is partly because it's designed by people of a similar age, so we are playing to our strengths by creating a piece which we'd like to read. 16-19 year olds are also the biggest consumers when it comes to purchasing music and going to the cinema, so a magazine about these two industries is the sort thing they'd want to read.
My magazine front cover and contents page uses many conventions of real media products, such as mast head, main sell, cover lines, freebies, barcode, mid-close up photo etc… By looking at other magazine front covers and contents pages we were able to understand the denotations (describing literally what you see) and connotations (what you associate with the denotation). By using what we had learnt from the denotations and connotations of other media products, we were able to create a front cover and contents page which was similar to those of a professional standard, and yet add our own slant and style. At first glance our front cover appears to be very simple and plain, so you may believe it doesn't challenge forms and conventions of real media products, however, by producing a plain and simple front cover I believe we are challenging professional media products. Professional media products seem to feel the need to cram as much as they can onto their cover and in your face, whereas we have decided to take a more laid back approach, we're not forcing it at you, people can read it if they wish, I think this attitude is perfect for our target audience.
Denotations: A gas meter in the background, a tin of soup cooking on red grill in front of an old radio, serif font, black, white and red colours used. Red circles and black graphic in the background.
Connotations: Quite an artistic front cover (magazine for artists), which summons up images of poor living conditions and old technology - which would be the case we artist considering they often make little. (A magazine for the economically unstable?) It could be that, or it could just be a pretentious and frivolous art magazine for people who like to think they're cultured.
This magazine is for radicals and maybe underachievers. For radicals, because they consider themselves as individual and unique (this magazine front cover is quite distinct). You could argue that it's also for underachievers because the tinned soup and old radio suggest quite a simple and dull life, they can't be bothered to cook a proper meal (artists being more creative than domesticated.) The old radio could show that this magazine is also for traditionalists. Maybe for people who are post materialists as well, because they want to make something of their lives in years to come.
Age group 18-26
Ammunition magazine
Denotations: Female model lying down in a white background with blonde hair and black streaks wearing a black and white dress with silver earings. The mast head is a sans serif font for all the text, and 'UNI' is in red compared to the rest of the masthead which is black. There is a red, white and black colour scheme for the cover.
Connotations: A stylish University magazine, which is very classy. It's British magazine because it says "Proud to be British." It seems to be for people who enjoy alternative music and alternative comedy, yet still enjoy Britains older culture. For anyone who enjoys films, music, television, fashion and so on.
For aspirers because this magazine seems quite glamourous and middle class, they want to climb up the social ladder. Also for radicals because it discusses lesser know musicians such as 'Dan le sac vs Scroobius Pip' who are generally consider to be quite an underground duo. These people are potentially post materialists because they want to be something later in life.
Age group 20-26
Student magazine
Denotations: Green background with a woman in a white shirt and lime green bikini, she has long brown hair and she is opening the collar of her shirt. White and green colour scheme. Green circle with 'Debut Issue' written inside it, a green clover behind some text.
Connotations: Quite a simple front cover with a white and green colour scheme. It could be a British magazine, but the font for the mast head looks like the sort of thing sporty people in America use. It's obviously for people who want a good time, enjoy drinking and clubbing etc... The enthuses on St. Patrick's Day supports this concept.
Post materialists and hedonists would read this because they enjoy life and want things now. Traditionalists and underachievers could also read this because St. Patrick's Day is a famous tradition, as well as underachievers, who enjoy a good time and getting drunk.
During my preliminary task I was able to learn techniques and skills which helped me to produce my main media product which included; planning, organisation of time, photography skills, magazine conventions, post-production methods and a deeper consideration of target audience.
Classic FM
