Final Magazine

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

Essay form:

Throughout the creation of my product I used a number of different technologies in order to create a professional looking magazine.

Firstly, when doing my inside and outside photo shoot with my model, Bradley Moore, I used a canon 55OD DSLR to take the pictures of Bradley as I felt that I knew how to use the camera rather well as I used it when creating my preliminary task. As the camera is a digital camera it had helped me out magnificently as I was able to take many pictures and during the photo shoot skim through them to check they are coming out well; the ones that weren’t coming out well I could delete with ease. After I finished my photo shoot I could instantly transfer the photos from the memory stick to the computer, and look through the photos I had taken in detail. During the inside photo shoot I had a white back drop behind the model and it was lit up by interfit portrait photography lighting, this helped create the right amount of lighting in the pictures so they appear professional. Another good feature that helped the pictures come out looking professional and crisp was that I had trigger lighting, this means that when ever I took a picture the lighting would flash at the same time; this ensured my photos came out as clear as possible. For the inside shoot the lens I used for the camera was 18-55mm 4.6 aperture which meant I could capture each image at a variety of angles and distances of Bradley.

After uploading the picture on to my computer and choosing the pictures that I wanted to feature in my magazine, I started to edit them using a programme called Adobe Photoshop CS5. This software allowed me to edit, cut, change and modify my images, which helped make the pictures appear much more professional. One of the main reasons why I used Photoshop to edit my images was to cut out the background. There are a various amount of ways that you can do this; one way which is most probably the simplest is to use a tool called the ‘magic wand’, this allowed you to simply click on the background and press delete which would get ride of the background completely. Although this way is quick and simple it cut out my image roughly, so I only used this method for small picture on the contents page. The method I used for my front cover was colour range, this allowed me to click on parts of the image I wished to erase and then edit to perfection using the mask tool.

Another useful piece of technology I used that was Adobe Premier Pro CS5, this is a programme, which allows you to create videos; I used this program to create my ‘behind the scenes’ video. The piece of software allows the user to change the speed of a clip, insert pictures, insert audio etc. I used the program and sped up a clip, which was 10 minutes long to 2 minutes, which showed the viewer that I took all the pictures in my photo shoot. I also added audio which was a song, the song was a very famous R&B song.

The main programme I used was Adobe InDesign, which enabled me to create my magazine. This piece of software is used by professionals to create magazines, which I was fortunate enough to be able to use it. The programme allowed me to create my magazine easier, for instance; when inserting a picture it allows you too use a tool called text wrap, this causes the text to go around the pictures with ease. Another useful tool which InDesign has is that when you insert text and it is more than the page can contain, it gives the user the option to drag the missing text to the next page in seconds. Another useful thing is the swatches, this enables you to save colours which is very useful when you have a theme colour going.

Another piece of technology that most people take for granted that I used was popular websites, such as: Google, YouTube and of course Blogger. Google helped me a tremendous amount when I was researching at the very start of the course as I could gather information about certain magazines such as Vibe, and I could also gather pictures using Google. YouTube also helped me as I have videoed some of the production posts and then uploaded them to YouTube. Finally Blogger has been a huge part of the creation of my magazine, as it allowed me to post every stage of the production process, which showed the different stages that I took when creating my magazine. 

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

Essay form:

When creating my magazine, Slick, I tried to include typical features shown in the music magazines genre Hip-Hop/R&B to make it attract the target audiences. I used the research I had done at the beginning of the course, for instance analyzing magazines, to help gather up enough knowledge on the design of Hip-Hop/R&B magazines and are presented; this helped my magazine to appear as professional as possible and still appeal to the target audience.

I wanted to make my magazine stand out from others in the market, I felt like if I copied the magazine I inspired mine to be like (vibe) then it would not be unique. So firstly I achieved my unique magazine by having a different colour theme than any other music magazine on the shelves (purple). I used these colours as it displays my magazine as something new as the first thing people see is the colours and the pictures of the magazine. I also created the name of my magazine also has many links with the genre of the magazine as it as the same feel as cool or wicked. This is the type of magazine my target audience would like to read as it seems from the very start that it’s a chilled, easy reading magazine; just like the type of music, R&B.

For my main sell line I used a font that is different to all the other sell lines to make it stand out; the font has the same feeling as someone who has handwritten the word ‘Back’ this again relates to the genre of the magazine. I placed a banner at the bottom of the magazine which showed that the magazine has Facebook and Twitter, this appeal to my target audience has part of their social habits is to be on social networking sites. Also my other sell lines contain many well-known artists, which means it will attract a wide variety of audience.

Like many music magazines, especially Vibe magazine, my contents page has a large picture of Bradley (my main model) in it. As during my early stages of researching I gathered that the main feature of any magazine tends to have a very large picture in the contents page. This is another thing that has made my media product to convey a professional look that feels and looks like a real music magazine. There is also a section on the contents page, which has the Facebook and Twitter logo's which appeals to the audience as the target audience are usually active on social networking sites and are quite young.

My double paged spread continue to use the them of white, black and purple, reflecting the mood as chilled, relaxed and originality which plants a seed into the readers mind; whilst reading the article they will then feel laid back. In the first double paged spread I have created a large quote which the reader can read in seconds, this allows the reader to know whether they would be interested in my magazine or in this case my article. I have carefully chosen where my photos have been taken to ensure the target audience is enticed. For instance I took the out side photo shoot of Bradley Moore in London city with buildings and people in the background, which fits in with the article of Bradley being a London city boy. This also links with the target audience as they go up to cities on a regular basis to go to clubs and so on, the target audience also prefer the busy city instead of the quite country side, thus why I did not have the outside photo shoot in the woods. Also the picture on the first double-paged spread will entice the audience and draw them in, as Bradley face is half covered by the shadow which implies the article will be interesting and there is some gossip to know; the target audience like to read about gossip, so this will appeal to them highly.

What kind of Institution might distribute your media product and why?

Essay form:

There are four main companies that form the oligopoly. These are Bauer Media, ICP Media, InterMedia and Conde Nast.

The first distributor that I considered on publishing my magazine is Bauer Media; this is a large German publishing company in Hamburg and publishes over 282 magazines. This company publishes many magazines such as: Q magazine, Empire and Kerrang. Due to them not publishing a magazine that has connections with the genre of my magazine I believe there is a possibility that this company would distribute my magazine. Not only because they don’t distribute a genre like mine, however they can also break into a new market of magazines for them.

Another publishing company I have thought would be a possible distributor is IPC, which is one of the largest publishing companies which publish a variety of magazines such as: men’s interest, music, TV guides and many more. IPC also publish one of the biggest music magazines, if not the biggest music magazine; NME. I believe that my magazine again can become successful with this company, as like Bauer Media they do not distribute a magazine like mine, however they have the experience with distributing big music magazines such as NME.

InterMedia is another publisher that distributes many magazines, however the biggest magazine in my interest that they publish is Vibe magazine. This is company would not want to distribute my magazine as I was influenced and inspired by Vibe magazine a lot when producing my magazine. So InterMedia would not be interested in distributing a magazine that is very much like a magazine they already distribute (Vibe) and they would not gain anything from distributing my magazine.

The last company that makes up the oligopoly is the publishing company Conde Nast. They are a very well known company that publishes one of the biggest, most read magazine; Vogue. As they publish one of the biggest magazines in the world, I believe that they could be a good option as they have experience with getting magazine heard by the world. However even though they produce big name magazines such as Vogue, I believe they do not have that much experience with distributing music magazines, which could result in me not choosing this company.

Overall I believe that the best company to publish my magazine is IPC. This is because not only my magazine will benefit from them distributing my magazine however the company would benefit. This is because they do not publish a magazine like mine, which means they can enter a new music genre market. It will also mean I won’t have any inner competition as there is not other magazine like mine that IPC are publishing.

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

At the beginning of the course I produced a school magazine front page and contents page, which was my preliminary task. As you can probably see the magazine looks very un-professional, as I did not know how to take effective pictures, use Photoshop CS3 effectively or create a magazine in general. However after spending a lot of time researching, planning and drafting I understood as I went on how to create a professional looking magazine that will attract the audience.

Firstly I believe my general knowledge and understanding on magazines has improved tremendously as before I started doing my research I had no understanding on how a music magazine is usually set out and what the editors do to capture the audience. After I had completed the first couple of tasks which were analyzing I was getting to grips with what I had to do; for instance in my preliminary task the sell line for my main article was the same size as the other sell lines, after analyzing front covers I realized that the main feature sell line tends to always be larger than other sell lines. I also learnt that magazines don’t usually have that much empty space as they try to put the highest possible amount of information in them. As you can see I had plenty of empty spaces in my contents page for my preliminary task, however after analyzing some contents pages I realized that for your magazine to look professional it should have hardly any empty spaces, unless you want the ‘simple’ look. Another thing I learnt from analyzing magazines was that there is always a colour theme to the magazine, for instance Q magazine has a red, black and white colour theme.

Secondly, I learnt how I should go about when taking pictures; at first when taking pictures for the preliminary task I didn’t really know what I was doing and what type of angle or distance I had to be in relation to the model. However after looking at magazines, especially vibe, it gave me an idea of the type of picture I wanted in my magazine. So my ability to take photos has improved dramatically in comparison to the quality of the pictures in my preliminary task magazine. As you can see in my final magazine the pictures are to a high quality when considering the angle of the picture and the sharpness.

The other aspect that I have improved on is the technology side, such as editing pictures in Photoshop and creating a magazine in InDesign. Firstly to create pictures that look very clear and professional you need to edit it, whether it is just to take out the background or to change the colour. I believe I have improved my ability to change an average picture to a very good picture through Photoshop and this has helped me when it came to improving the photos in my magazine. I have also learnt how to use a completely new software to me, this is called ‘InDesign’ it is a program that specializes in creating magazines. I learnt how to create a magazine on the program and all the tips and tricks you can do, such as wrap the text around an image or create a boarder that goes on every page using ‘masterpage’.

Overall I believe that I have succeeded in learning new things from how a magazine works to how to use computer programs. It has also taught me how to research and plan for something which in this case was my magazine as before I had never planned to create something such as a magazine. 

How did you attract/address the audience?

How Did You Attract/adress the audience by angelosandreou

Essay form:

There are various ways I tried to attract the audience and encourage them to pick up my magazine rather than any other magazine on the shelf or in stores. Firstly I believed that one of the most important thing that I had to get right was what the magazine contained; it took a long time to decide my magazine content and sell lines because if the content isn’t interesting for the reader they wont buy the magazine. My magazine attracts the audience by having very famous and big names included on the front cover of the magazine. For instance I have included Drake, Nicki Minaj and Rhianna all on my front cover, and more in the contents page; this is because the public are very interested in the big star in the music world and want to know all the gossip and information about them e.g. when their next concerts are. Not only does the content of the magazine attract the audience however I believe the pictures the magazine contains also attracts the audience; not only do I have good pictures of Bradley Moore however there are pictures of Jessie J and also Trey songz on the contents page. These pictures will also attract the audience as they get to see pictures of top artist in the music at their own concerts.

There were many ways I have made my magazine attractive for the viewers and stand out from the other magazines. Firstly I have made the theme colour of my magazine unique and original as no other magazine has a purple and white theme colour. Also I have gone with a simple layout to my magazine, which makes it pleasant to the eye, and an easy read for the audience, this again will entice the audience to buy my magazine.

I also have some ‘freebies’ in the magazine, at first I was going to give away CD’s and posters however as time has changed and less people use CDs I have decided to give away free downloads instead, for instance in this edition I will give away Bradley Moore’s new song. I have also decided not to give away posters as I believe my target audience are not the type to collect posters as the younger age tend to collect posters. As technology has improved I therefore decided to go with the free downloads instead, this will attract the audience as they are getting a free download as well as a magazine.

The model I am using is also a very attractive, broad man who will attract the buyer to pick up the magazine and lead them to actually buy the magazine.

The uses and gratification theory has also made the audience more enticed in the magazine. There are four reasons why people use media:

Firstly personal relationships, people use the media, in this case my magazine, to form a relationship with others; it will give people something to talk about and become part of a social group.

The second reason why people use media is because it creates personal identity, in other words if someone reads my magazine on a frequent basis it will reflect on them and it will form their personality.

People also use media because it is a form of entertainment, in this case my magazine will have very interesting articles and pictures in it, this will attract the audience and make them want to by my magazine due to the consumers wanting to be informed and entertained.

Finally, the last reason why people use media is to be informed on information about the latest news and gossip, in this case people will buy my magazine to be updated on music artists latest gossip, concerts coming up, album reviews etc.

The final way I will attract the readers is through the use of new media. In recent years there has been an increase in technology, which has caused new sorts of media. Firstly I will have an app that will allow people to have access to Slick website however in a format that will suit smart phones. There will also be another app that you can buy which will contain the same information as the magazine edition bought, this will basically mean consumers will have the magazine on their phone. As 50% of the population have smart phones I thought it would be a great idea for their to be an app and an a magazine app.

I shall also use social networking sites as many of my target audience are on these websites such as: Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace etc. This will attract the target audience to buy my magazine as they can find out some information about my magazine before purchasing it.

Overall I believe I have the right mixture of functions that will attract my target audience. I have given every little aspect a lot of thought on how I will display my magazine and what my magazine will contain. I have also kept up with the new technology and new media which will again attract and entice my audience to purchase my magazine. 

Who would be the Audience for your Media Product?

Essay form:

The audience for my media product is not as precise as the audiences for other music magazines as the genre of my magazine (R&B) is supported my many people across the world. However like every magazine there is a certain audience that would be interested in my media product than other types of people. Firstly the age of the buyer would be the younger population, from around 16-30 will be the usual reader as my even though the genre has been around for many decades my magazine will focus on cotemporary R&B which will only appeal to the younger age. I have come to the conclusion of the age of the audience due to the genre (R&B) being a popular feature in the charts, and the younger population often follows the charts.

The audience for my magazine will be preferably read by 55% of males and 44% females. The reason behind me thinking that there will be slightly more males reading my magazine than females is because R&B is listened to more by males than females. Females tend to listen to more than one genre e.g. pop, R&B, disco etc. However the average male tends to listen to one set genre. Although, putting that aside the magazine is designed for both male and female readers still as it leaves a larger amount of possible buyers in the market for my magazine. I have also researched the gender split that read vibe magazine, as it is very much like mine; 55% male and 45% female read vibe which is the same as my calculations.

My audience’s social class is one of the factors that is diverse and can be from completely different social classes. The genre R&B has wide support from all types of people and backgrounds; classes A and B are the middle class citizens, this social class often like R&B however so do classes D and E which are semi skilled/non skilled workers. It is very hard to allocate the genre, R&B to a certain social class; however my personal opinion will be that social classes A,B and C1 will be the social class that will most probably purchase my magazine as the working classes (D and E) also listen to other types of music such as grime.

The audience’s personalities and social habits who will be reading my magazine will tend to the type of person that enjoys going out and socializing with people; they tend to go out to clubs and bars as R&B music usually get played in these type of places. They also like to go to concerts that are starring big artists e.g. Chris brown, this is one of the reasons why they will like to buy Slick as it will contain information about the up coming concerts/events. R&B fans also prefer to purchase things that everybody will be able to see rather than something for their house; for instance they would rather buy a new necklace than a new chair.