Thursday, 22 April 2010

Final Production

Main Task

Front Cover of Music Magazine



Contents page of Music Magazine



Double Page Spread




Preliminary Task

Front Cover of School Magazine
Contents Page of School Magazine

Saturday, 27 February 2010

Evaluation Question 1

1. In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge, forms and conventions of real media products?

Front Cover


























  • Largest font on the front cover so attract the audience's attention
  • Masthead: Title, Positioning Statement, Date and Price
  • Title is full width of page and only one word. I decided to make the title blue,as on the questionnaire more people chose their favourite colour as blue.







  • Main coverline which is 2 lines long
  • Anchors the meaning of the main image so attracts the audience into wanting to kno who it is by using words such as "hottest" and "new"














  • Something free on the front cover, attracts the audience as they want to know how to get it
















  • Main image, smiling so doesnt show attitude which will attract pop music fans
  • The main image is giving direct address to the audience.

Contents Page




























  • The word contents full width of the page
  • The name of the magazine above it
  • Same colour writing as the title of the magazine


  • Page numbers on the pictures to anchor the written contents
  • I have used the colour pink for the numbers on the pictures which is the same colour as the numbers in the written contents.



  • Headings to divide up the contents page
  • Different font and colour to stand out
  • The "regulars" are so that the audiene know what will appear in the magazine every month


  • Consistent font and colour
  • The number of the page, one or two words to introduce the story and then sublines underneath
  • Keeping to the same colour font I have used purple which is the same colour as the coverlines on the front cover just a different shade.



  • Pictures to anchor the written text
  • I decided to use smaller pictures instead of one large image, as looking through other pop music magazines I have seen that they only use smaller image.



Double Page Spread






  • Headine bleeds across two pages
  • Red writing so that it stand out against the background
  • "Every time you smile, you laugh, you glow" is lyrics from one of the Jonas Brothers songs as fans of the band will already know what the article is about if they read the headline first.


  • Standfirst: Below the headline and above the article
  • Tells you the Journalist and about the article
  • Larger text than the rest of the article so that it stand out and people read that first



  • Drop Capital at the start of the article
  • Six lines down to make it stand out


  • Main image on the DPS, in order for it not to pixelate it had to cover a page and a quarter
  • When looking at the main image, the audience should know what the article is about.


  • I have added sixe more pictures to the third page to complete the article
  • All pictures are the same size



  • The page numers and name of the magazine after it
  • Same colour text as the DPS headline

Question 2

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I decided to create a pop music magazine that has only really got one audience type, which are teenage girls aged from 16-18. My aim was to create it so that it would make teenage girls want to buy it; I did this by making the style and language informal so that teenagers could understand it and want to read more. My magazine represents the typical teenage girl who is into pop music, boy bands and fashion. I have used language that teenage girls would want to read and not formal writing or prefect English. I have used short sentences and simple vocabulary as people who read pop music magazines are perceived as being “airheads” or “dumb” so I followed that by also adding colours that girly girls would usually wear. My colour scheme had to be what would attract a teenage girl’s audience, which would be colours like pink, light blues and purples. It also shows that it would be for teenage girls as the article is about a well-known boyband that most teenage girls love and the features on the contents page are about boy bands or teenage girls idols such as Cheryl Cole.

Question 3

3. What kind of media insititution might distribute your media product and why?






http://www.ipcmedia.co.uk/



The kind of media institution that I think might distribute my media product would be one that could bring a larger audience to my music magazine. The media organization that I would like to distribute my magazine would be IPC Media that is a leading magazine publisher in the UK. They work with magazine that teenage girls are interested in such as now or look, although they don’t publish any pop music magazines, it would be ideal to distribute my magazine as it would bring a wider audience to their company. I think that it would be a good company to distribute my magazine as it also increases the coverage of music of a genre that it doesn’t already distribute a magazine for. A music magazine that IPC Media does distribute is NME, which has a wide audience, which means the company could also bring a bigger audience to my magazine.





Magazine that IPC Media distribute












http://www.nme.com/






















http://www.nowmagazine.co.uk/







www.look.co.uk

Question 4

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?



This is Amanda. She is 17 years old and is attending college 3 days a week were she is studying childcare. She lives in a semi-detached house with her mother, father, two sisters and their dog. Amanda also has a part-time job in New Look were she works on Fridays and weekends. She spends a lot of time on her computer downloading music to put on to her Ipod and she also does hip hop classes. She only listens to pop music such as boy bands like Westlife and JLS and other singers such as Britney Spears and Beyonce. Amanda also likes to listen to the old pop group ABBA on her Ipod or artists that cheer her up such as Chipmunk.

Question 5

5. How did you attract/address your audience?





Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?






Question 7

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt from it in the progression of it to your full product?











When producing my school magazine I didn’t have to worry about the audience that was going to read the magazine so I could write and put whatever pictures into the magazine that I liked, but when making a music magazine I had to understand the importance of the audience as I chose what audience I wanted to read my magazine along with the genre of it. I had to do research to see what things attracted my audience to a pop music magazine and what would make them want to buy my magazine. When choosing my genre I had codes and conventions to follow and instead of going by what I thought would look good in a magazine I had to go by what professional magazines contained to make mine look just as good. The photography had to be more creative in my music magazine as the photographs had to work with the genre of the magazine although the rules didn’t restrict the creativity of them. I had to make it so it could compete with professional magazines, so following all of the codes and conventions it has got all of the things in it that a professional magazine would. I think that my research skills have developed as for the preliminary task I didn’t have to use my research skills as I made it on what I thought a school magazine would look like, but with the music magazine I had to create a questionnaire as well as looking at other pop music magazines as I had to decide what to put in my magazine to attract the right audience. When planning both the school and music magazine I designed a plan of what I thought would look good in both, but when creating my main task it changed a lot as I had to change what I thought looked good to what actually worked well. My creative skills had to develop for the main task, as the music magazines needed articles and headlines that would attract an audience and would make sense to them such as being informal and simple sentences. Looking back at the contents pages, I can now see that the music magazine contents is more organised as the school magazine contents looks messy and all over the place. When writing the article, I chose a band that is popular with teenage girls who like pop music so I had to address that particular audience.

Tuesday, 13 October 2009

Main Task

Codes and Conventions of a music magazine front cover
-Photography is a lot more creative
-Small number of colours used
-Strip at the bottom or top - list of artists conveying there is a lot inside the magazine
-Main image: No smiling, make contact with the audience, conveys an attitude
-Smaller images of performance
-One word or letter title
-Follows most of codes and conventions from any magazine

Codes and conventions of a music magazine contents page
-Follows all codes and conventions of a contents page

Codes and conventions of a double page spread
-One large/main image - half the article (whole page)
-Quotes sometimes used on main image
-Drop Capital
-Pictures often bleed across from one page to the other
-Headlines across the two pages
-Strapline or a border used to bleed across double page spread
-Bold text in a first paragraph and sometimes slightly larger font size for first paragraph
-More than one image - smaller images are used to break up the layout of text and make it more inviting
Other techniques such as panels or quotes
-Byline ~ the name of the journalist that wrote the article - positioned in or by the Standfirst or at the end of the article.
Photographer is also credited
-Standfirst is always by the headline and before the start of the article
Introduces the article
Works with the headline to tell the reader what the article is about - larger font size
-Headlines - creative, eye catching
-The artists' names are highlighted
-Page number/title of magazine/issue date/ website address
-Limited use of colour
-Layed out in columns
-Strapline - heading/tab
-Creative use of photography
-Informal style of writing - personality of the journalist will come through the article and sometimes add an opinion


Planning my Music Magazine






Magazine Research


Top of the Pops in the 1990's
Price: £1.35
Frequency of publication: Monthly
Issue Size: 88 pages
Regular Content: Not available















Questionnaire Results

1. From the 20 people that I asked 8 people said that they bought a music magazine monthly, whereas 7 people out of my target audience had never bought a music magazine. This shows that I should make my magazine monthly and make it appeal to those 7 people that said they had never bought a music magazine.






2. Who is your favourite band or artist?
2 people chose Stereophonics
4 people chose Beyonce
14 different people chose :-
The Killers
Metro Station
Jennifer Hudson
P. Diddy
Pink
Foo Fighters
Miley Cyrus
Lady Gaga
The Beatles
KT Tunstall
The Red Jumpsuit Project
All American Rejects
Black Eyed Peas
Blue October

I can see from this that most of the people prefer different bands or artists, so this shows that I should use different artists to make my magazine appeal to different people.


3. I asked the people what was their favourite colour so I knew which colour would be liked on my magazine. The outcome shown that more people preferred the colour blue which 6 people chose; the next highest chosen colour was pink which 4 people chose. So I have decided to make my main colour blue and then use a range of different colours.






4. I had to decide what price my magazine would be for I asked people what they would spend on a music magazine so that I didn't price it to high or to low. 9 people said they would pay £2.50 - £3, so that mean I will price my magazine between those 2 prices.







5. Deciding what to put as my converlines and in my double page spread, I asked people what
they liked about music magazines. Most people said that they like news on bands and artists, so that had helped me to decide what kind of coverlines will be on my front cover.








6. So I didn't put in my magazine things my target audience wouldn't like, I asked every person what they disliked about music magazines. 7 people said that they didn't like adverts.







7. What 3 words would you associate with pop music?
Cheesey (9)
Upbeat (5)
Bright (3)
Fun (8)
Dance (4)
Loud (2)
Party (2)
Teenagers (2)
Festivals (2)
Boy Bands (3)
Girly (4)
Cringy
Popular
Lively
Pop
Rubbish
Exciting

I decided to add this question into my questionnaire because I thought that it would help me decide the name of my magazine. 9 people said that pop music was cheesy and 8 people said it was fun. I got a range of answers from the 20 people that I asked, but I don't think I will use any of these words.


8. I had asked my questions to 17 females but only 3 males, so I think hat this survey is bias towards males, as it does not show their opinions towards pop music magazines. Although my target audience would be teenage girls who prefer pop music I did ask 3 males thinking that I would be able to make my magazine for both males and females.





9. I decided to ask how old they were so that I could see which age group is more likely to read a pop music magazine. I did this by seeing who their favourite band/artists were and looking at what they like about music magazines. This shows that my target audience age range would be between 15-18 but suitable for under 15's.






10. A lot of magazines give away free gifts, I decided to ask the people if they liked the free gifts they received. 16 people said that they did like the free gifts and 1 person said that they liked it depending on what it was. This shows that I should give out free gifts with my magazine.








Publication Plan

Title: Rapture

Positioning Statement: Its Pop-tastic

Frequency Publication: Monthly

Price: £2.60

Distribution: Supermarkets, newsagents; HMV and other music stores

Rationale: The music magazine that I am creating is for teenage girls aged 11-16, which will include interviews and stories about bands/artists that have recently released a song or album. The articles will focus on what we think the fans will want to know and read. Questionnaires were filled out so that we could get the best possible magazine that will satisfy that target audience.

Style: The magazine will be an informal style offering a lot of humour and the fans’ opinions on artists and bands. My magazine is for teenage girls so will use vocabulary that they will understand such as slang.

Regular Content
• Quizzes, Competitions
• Exclusive Interviews
• Number 1’s
• Tickets to be won
• Free posters
• Future Hits

Feature Content
• Who has been number one this month?
• Concerts you have to see this year
• Who has reached the number 1 album?
• Interview with JLS (interviews with bands/artist will be a regular feature)
• The Pussycat Dolls vs. Girls Aloud
• Alesha Dixon and Peter Andre; fighting for number 1
• Win Jo Bro tickets (tickets will be won each month)
• Get to know Ruby Sykes
• The top 20 songs you have to hear
• Leona Lewis goes on tour
• Shayne Ward makes a comeback
• Future hits
• Alexandra Burke talks Love, Life and Music
• Cheryl Cole talks about life without the band
• The Saturdays: Free posters
• You think you know everything about the Jonas Brothers? Guess again.

House Style
Coverlines: Arial (bold and italic)
Headlines: Franklin Gothic Book
Standfirst: Franklin Gothic Book
Captions: Franklin Gothic Book
Features first paragraph: drop capital in Britannic Bold,
News first paragraph: first letter in bold capital
Body text: Times New Roman 11pt
Colour scheme: Blue and Pink


Final Ideas

Front cover images
One main image and a smaller image (if possible)
Female - 16-20
Dress and heels
Sleek hair and make-up

Coverlines for Front Cover
• You think you know everything about the Jonas Brothers? Guess again.
Plus you can also win Jo Bro tickets
• JLS: Our first album will be number 1
• Pussy Cat dolls vs. Girls Aloud
• Alesha Dixon and Peter Andre: Fighting for Number 1
• 20 concerts you have to see this year
• All you need to know about Ruby Sykes

Text for contents page
Who has been number one this month?
Find out who you have voted number one
Concerts you have to see this year
We give you the latest concerts for 2010
Who has reached the number one album?
We can now reveal who has reached the top spot
Interview with JLS
They are everywhere and we were lucky enough to interview them
The Pussycat Dolls vs. Girls Aloud
Which is the better girl band?
Alesha Dixon and Peter Andre; fighting for number 1
We witness these 2 pop stars go head to head for number 1
You think you know everything about the Jonas Brothers? Guess again.
An inside look on what you never knew about the Jo Bros
Win Jo Bro tickets
This is your big chance to win tickets to the Jonas Brothers biggest and best tour yet
Get to know Ruby Sykes
Rapture welcomes Ruby into the world of pop
The top 20 songs you have to hear
Songs that will blow your mind away
Leona Lewis goes on tour
Leona’s biggest tour has been set, find out how to get tickets
Shayne Ward makes a comeback
He’s finally back and bigger than ever before
Future Hits
We give you first look at the songs that will make number 1
Alexandra Burke talks Love, Life and Music
Alexandra tell us everything that’s going on
Cheryl Cole talks about life without the band
The Cole tells us about the solo life and how she misses the band
The Saturdays: Free posters
We give out free posters of The Saturdays and more!


Images for Contents Page
One photograph will be one I have taken from the Jonas Brothers concert, one will be a different image of the front cover girl and one will be an image associated with a celebrity from my feature content.

Article for Double Page Spread
For my double page spread I will be writing a biographical article of the Jonas Brothers using picture that I have taken myself.


Front Cover Pictures









































I decided to use this picture as my front cover image because I think that the pose is an appropriate way to show that it is a pop music magazine. I chose a dress for her to wear as I have researched pop music magazines and girls are normally dressed very "girly". Also I think that the pose will make people want to know more about her.


Contents Page Images























































Making the Front Cover