In what ways does your media produce use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When creating my music magazine I started to look at forms and conventions of real music media products, this was to help challenge myself and develop a unique and imaginative magazine, which stood out from all the others in that same genre.
I started to look at magazine mastheads which related to my genre such as 'Blender' and 'Top Of The Pops' (shown below)this was to help me to decide of an dea of what I would like mine to look like and where it should be placed etc. I then decided to place my masthead in the top left hand corner of my front cover. I needed to make this as soon as possible as it was what people first look out for when they see a new magazine. To make my magazine front cover different and original by choosing bright colours to make it stand out as well as changing it from being simple and straight and putting it into a shape (see below)
When looking at the design of my masthead you can see that many conventions have been used such as a simple colour scheme is important as having a restricted colour scheme shows a brands identity, most magazines stick to between 3 and 5 colours throughout the whole magazine, I had decided that i was going to use yellow, purple and white as I thought that these colours related to the "Pop" genre i decided to use. I had also restricted the fonts that I wanted to use as using many different ones made my magazine look unprofessional and like it wasn't made with care. The layout of my media product is also conventional as it includes puffs, coverlines, images, columns etc. It would also create less confusion for the readers, as a result they should be plain and unadorned. When taking my images i thought that they should be mainly medium to long shots as I thought that they looked more effective than having all the same size shots. I also think that the way I had placed my "model" was a good way to place her as it makes her seem girly and posed. I also think that having no background to my image made it look more like a real magazine image rather than one I had just taken.I also made sure that there is a variety of clothes worn like in a proper photo shoot. When writing in my magazine I realised that because of who my target audience is I had to make sure that what I was writing was understandable to a young audience and that it was clear proper English. As well as that I wanted to make sure that my language was "chatty" and "fun". I also decided that more images than words will be used as my target audience will be more interrested in looking at pictures than alot of reading.
The layout of my magazine front cover is conventional because all the headlines and cover lines link in with the main image as well as using coverlines that are about the main image. I have used puffs and banners which are placed at the bottom and corners of my magazine cover, I placed them in these places as they are where a magazine would probably put them to catch the readers attention. I looked at different magazines to see how they was layed out and how I could make my magazine look similar.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
When deciding on the social group I wanted to represent in my magazine, the age group of teens to young aduts seem a right age range with a social demographic group of B-C. People in this social group listening to pop music are likely to pick up my magazine as I directed everything in my magazine from models etc on the Pop theme. My model fits in well with the name of my magazine as she is the newest pop singer about her clothing is not exactly what someone in this social group may wear however I wanted her to wear something someone of her age range would wear. Her poses show that she is teens and having fun in what she is doing.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think that it would probably be better for my magazine and its ideologies to be sold with a major record label. This will have a lot of advantages as a major record label will allow a lot more copies to be printed and much more publicity. However I will not have very much freedom of what is written in my magazine. Seeing as a major record label should buy Out With The Old it would be sold in places such as WHSmiths, supermarkets etc.
Who would the audience be for your media product?
When planning my magazine I thought I wanted it to be for teens to young adults. This is because I think that this typical age group may listen to this type of music. As well as that it could be said that boys of this age group do not listen to pop music, however I think that even a small percentage could listen to it. However I think that making a pop magazine is normally focused on girls.
How did you attract/address the audience?
I tried to think of many different ways of attracting my audience. The first way I thought of was using a bright background which isn't normally using in magazines they normally go for plain white backgrounds. Thiswill help my magazine stand out on the shelves. I have included things such as puffs and banners on my front cover as well as a chance to win tickets to Kylie Minoque's concert. I thought that this would be interresting as it shows the style of music my magazines about etc.
On my front cover i have written a slogan "Freshest Pop Magazine Around " this is showing the true meaning of the magazine veey well as it is a play on words. My media product is up to date. It publishes all the latest news and this is why it is a good magazine to buy over all the others like it. The language used in this magazine means it can be read by all types of people older and younger. It is very basic and not childish or too mature for anyone. I created it like this as I did not want a specific age group to read it.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Using technology gave me a much better change to create a strong media product, ths use of cameras, image manipulation software and desktop publishing. The camera is important as when taking your photos you need a digital camera to insure that you get high quality mega pixels this will help make your image look professional as it would appear on a real magazine. It was also very important to take into account the lighting, angles and backgrounds used, as a dark wonky image wouldnt look good on a magazine at all.
The image manipulation software allowed me to not care about the location as I could just cut out the background as magazines nowadays have a plain background. I also used this when designing my feature as images with a background doesn't look as professional as ones with. As well as that I did not need to change the layering of any of my images. Using publishing helped me to to make my magazine a better quality than some of the other software. I showed this by using a range of fonts, layouts and different colours.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the proression from it to the full product?
There are many ways in which my media product has improved from my preliminary task. First of all is my image, when I first started making my school magazine I didnt really know what sort of image should be used and how I should portray it, I ended up using one which was not suited for a magazine. I just used a picture of someone that I knew posing in a possible school uniform, I did not take any framing, angles etc into concideration at all.After learning more about how to take a good image for a magazine I then knew what I wanted my image for my proper work to look like, a specific person/group which my main feature would be about.The way I have layed out all of my magazine has imporved dramatically as you can see on my preliminary task there is no real layout things where just put anywhere, just the picture with writing over and around it. The title of the magazine should be the biggest font on the page, as well as that the coverlines where all of different font which can be confusing for the reader so magazines should stick to one font as shown in my media product.