In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I feel my production reflects the pages from a real music magazine as they are following the typical codes and conventions such as a masthead, feature image and surrounding cover lines, in which I have researched to be found within the pages of typical music magazines; from this I would say I am going on to develop the typical codes and conventions of a music magazine as I am just improving the typical features of a music magazine.
On my first front cover my cover lines were very slim and I thought, looking back at my research and planning, other magazines cover lines were usually much thicker and also had images to compliment them. This inspired me to re-do the front cover of my magazine, taking into account these changes; also, for the bottom cover line I made it much thicker than the one at the top to include the cover lines I had covering my models arm in the first draft, I felt this change meant the image became much more of the main fosuc point of my magazine, with barely any of it being covered by text. Also, the masthead was covering my models head quite a lot, so I tried to move it up as well as I could bu moving it up alongside the masthead itself to help the photo again, be the main fosuc point of my magazine.
I then went on to change my magazine again, changing the image of the demo CD and instead taking my cover lines from the middle magazine to create 3 polaroid images to go along the side of my magazine. I feel this works better as the cover lines now add an insight of what to expect inside my magazine as they're accompanied by the use of imagery and they're also easily noticeable to the reader at a quick glance, which when looking at other music magazines, is what the cover lines are used for and aren't for telling the story itself, this is the reason I decided images used for my cover lines would be best suited for the style of my magazine, thus helping me stick to the typical codes and conventions of a music magazine.
To help my magazine appeal to my target audience I used bright colours, such as teal and orange to accompany the white and black and stuck with this theme throughout my magazine. I also used more chatty phrases such as "on the block" and "up for grabs"to help the audience I wanted to aim for relate more to the magazine itself.
On my first draft of my magazine front cover I had the font sizes too small to be readable, this resorted in me re-editing the magazine to make the font sizes much bigger. I also changed the colours of the text as I felt it was easier to read in white as the background is so abstract, but I still used the same colours to keep with the in-house style. Although, I still feel it may be a little difficult to read and this therefore wouldn't match the typical codes and conventions of a typical music magazine; this would be an example of me challenging the codes and conventions.
Also, by following the typical codes and conventions of a music magazine, on my double page spread I used a full size image on one of the pages. However, I adapted this to add more questions and an additional picture to the interview, and feel like this would be more likely to appeal to my target audience, as within my questionnaire it was mostly voted that the majority of time spent on a magazine was looking at the interview pages. Therefore I feel this is an example of me developing the typical codes and conventions of a music magazine of this genre.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My magazine represents social groups through the use of the artist within the feature image on my cover page. The individual appears to be having a laugh and is styled in an outfit consisting of a red skirt, white top and a fur coat; this outfit isn't casual and I feel this gives the impression that the model is outgoing and enjoys what she does.
The model I have used within my magazine pages, would be included into the social group that the magazine is targeted to. She is 'trendy, fashionable and successful' and the target audience would inspire to be similar to her. I feel as she is part of the social group the magazine is targeted to, they are more likely to be attracted to the magazine as they would see her as a role model.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I feel media institutions that have not yet dipped into the magazine market may be most likely to distribute my music magazine as this would help them appeal to a much wider audience. For example, News Corporation are a global corporation and own a large number of newspapers and have also recently taken over a radio station (fox film radio station and myspace records); these music stations cover a wider range of genres from soul and classic to pop and indie music which shows they would be interested to appeal to music lovers and this would be why I feel they would be best suited to become the distributor of my magazine.
What would be the audience for your media product?
I feel the audience for my magazine would most likely be for girls in their teens, as this would reflect the model I used for my magazine. Although initially I wanted my magazine to appeal to both boys and girls, as this is what was voted for within my questionnaire, but I found this difficult to stick to considering my genre is most likely pop/indie and the colour theme throughout my magazine is more girly than I initially planned to use. 'Pop' is considered to be more linked to the female audience with 'indie' being more inspiring to males, although I feel my magazine is most suited to girls due to the colours and the text and even the model represented on my front cover.
How did you attract/address your audience?
The magazine is shown to be a music magazine as I have mentioned "top songs", "posters"and with the title of the magazine being "acoustic" which I decided upon as acoustic is closely linked to the music industry.
To attract my audience I used typical codes and conventions such as a bold masthead and created the feature image to be central to the magazine, alongside this I used colours such as white, orange and teal with a variety of sized fonts to help the cover look eye catching and encourage the reader to read the contents; I feel these colours are girly which helps to attract the specific gender I was aiming for. My masthead is understated, with it being smaller than the artists name and I believe this gives my magazine a chilled, relaxed mood, which is also represented through the magazines title (acoustic music is chilled and relaxed and this is shown throughout my front cover by the use of the masthead). I created an in-house style as I used the same fonts and colours throughout my magazine. The image I chose I used because it represents an ecstatic, playful image with sends off the impression the artist is enjoying what she's doing and I used a direst mode of address to attract the audience to the magazine. The cover lines surround the image in polaroid images and are set in front of the image, to encourage the reader to read into the magazines contents and be noticeable to the reader at a quick glance. My contents page and my double page spread are using the same font size and colour to give the magazine a sense of unity and to help the audience stay attracted to each individual page. The images I have chosen for my contents page are much smaller images just to show by a quick glance what page the image is related to; the second is to link with the subscription information.
On my double page spread, I used the mise-on-scene of my images to help it reflect being used within a music magazine; for example she has props such as a guitar and head phones to help it relate back to the music magazine. Also, her clothing is suited to the time period of people her age, which again helps to emphasise the target audience of my magazine. The double page images are quite fun to help show the artist is more relaxed during the interview. I used the same background as I felt the background helped to show the colours over well and it drew attention to the individual in front of it.
I feel my contents page worked well as a whole and I like that the features and the regulars are separated as I think this is suited for a music magazine. I like my double page spread and think they compliment one another well. I have also stuck with the same fonts and colour schemes even here to ensure the magazine looks professional. Also, for my the interview I ensured I asked questions related to the stars music life rather than just their lifestyle to make sure the magazine stays linked to the music genre I decided on.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During this process I had to use programmes such as fireworks and blogspot, which are things I hadn't had any experience with before this task. I learnt how to create a blog, making decisions to help the blog look presentable but at the same time reflecting myself within it and keep it up-to-date with my work. I began using fireworks and although I found it difficult, I learnt how to create a variety of magazine pages and how to properly layer images and text over the top of one another.
Although, I was unable to use fireworks for my final artefact as I was unable to save my work whilst using this programme, so instead I used publisher. I had used publisher for my work before and so had a good understanding of how it worked from the beginning of its use; I learnt how to edit my images and rotate them so they were no longer straight on and also how to import text from other programmes on the computer software. Throughout my creation of my magazine I also needed to use a camera to help with the production of the images within my magazine; I had to learn how to use a real photography camera and all the settings it had on it. I learnt how to use the "move" setting which allows the target to move when the image is taken and not blur; I used this setting in case my target was laughing too much when I was trying to take her more relaxed poses.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel I have learnt much more about a magazines codes and conventions and how effective the mise-en-scene is. My preliminary task helped to show me different ways in which the masthead and the cover lines can be placed around the image and the effect of the image being the focus point of the magazine. The contents page too, I feel helped to show me the importance of the layout of the magazines contents and helped to ensure me that the size of my text within my final artefact must be of a suitable size and colour.
Also, for my main artefact I had to consider the in house style of my magazine, the mode of address, costumes and poses for my feature image and the different colours used for the text. Looking at my preliminary task, although I did consider these factors I didn't look into them with too much detail as I only wanted to grasp how to create a magazine suited to a specific audience. When I was producing my music magazine and I was researching these specific things I had to look into media institutions that would publish my magazine and so I had to ensure my magazine followed the typical things they may look for. For example, News Corporation have taken over Fox Film Music Group and Myspace Records which are covering a wide range of music genres so it was easier for me to consider the features of the magazine that they would look for to be put under a pop genre.
