Magazine

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

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

When creating my final product, I used a variety of hardware and software, and in the process learnt a lot about them. The main piece of software I used was Adobe InDesign as it was the programme I used to primarily design and create my magazine. I had no experience in using the software before I initially started making the magazine. However in using Adobe InDesign top create and develop my magazine, I followed tutorials in order to give my music magazine a strong and professional layout. I used tools for aspects of my magazine such as making pull out quotes to make the magazine look more interesting. Adobe InDesign is usually the software that most if not all magazine companies use to create their magazine, i.e. companies such as NME and Q.

As well as using Adobe InDesign to create the main format and basis of the magazine, I also used Adobe Photoshop especially for the editing of my photos that were included within the magazine of which was not available in InDesign. I used the programme for basic editing of my photos, such as airbrushing with the blemish tools and adjusting to the correct lightings for the pictures, as that is a familiar convention used in all magazines, not just in music. I did this on all of my pictures in order to give my magazine and professional and well polished look as well to adhere with the typical media conventions. Photoshop was the perfect software to use to enhance my images and give my magazine a cool, yet original appearance.

The photos I edited on were shot in two different locations – one being the schools studio and the other being in and around the school. For my studio photo shoot, I used a variety of different models, their names were, Jessica, Tia, Ross and Jemini. I used a white background for most of my photo shoots which may or may not have been the wrong decisions as my images did turn out to be very bland. The lights which I used were the Interfit Stellar X studio flash lights and the camera I shot on was a Cannon 550D Digital SLR Camera. I used a prime lens which has a fixed zoom; the camera also allows you to take pictures manually and automatically. The 50mm lens acts like an 85mm and I chose to use this lens as I learnt that it was ideal for portrait shots which are what I used primarily in my photo shoot as this reflects the shot styling of most magazines. The camera had a 1.8 adjustable aperture which is the cheaper alternative to the zoom lens but still worked just as successfully for my desired shots. I used this camera as a hand held as opposed to on a tripod to create a more natural variety of shots and angles of the cameras.

 

 

 

Equipment

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

The type of magazine I have produced is predominantly for the 16-21 age range and for both genders. What I believe is young readers tend to be more interested in magazines that do not just focus on one group, whether that would be male or female or young artists/old artists. This is supported by the fact that young readers are more interested in new music, of which has recently come out, for example, the new songs from Fifty Shades of Grey. What they also like to read and hear about is the latest gossip about albums, artists and generally the whole music industry. The audience data and the research I have done also shows how young people are more committed into finding out about new artists and release dates than adults from the ages of 23 onwards are. I feel as if the social class and gender of my readers is a lot wider my results highlighted, females and males were both interested in new media to keep up to date and to engage with their favourite artists. As my audience aren’t too old they would be computer literate so things like android phone apps and viewing my website would be extremely easy for them. This was useful as it meant that I knew I could add more features using social media into my magazine, for example, Youtube subscriptions, a Facebook page and an Instagram account. On my magazine front cover and in my contents page, I have also given readers a chance to win big prizes such as, tickets to Glastonbury Festival, meeting a band/artist. 

According to my research I found that my specific target audience enjoy going to festivals, gigs and subscribing to channels on YouTube. This helps me emphasise the fact that most of the people who I suppose will be attracted to my magazine will be from a middle class background which means they will be able to afford the above and my magazine. This helped me create further features in my magazine such as ‘Win tickets to Glastonbury, V fest and Reading’. I had to think quite a bit about the style of bands and artists in my magazine. The reason I only focused my attention on one genre was because pop has a variety of different paths it drifts down and therefore there is a lot if not too much to include, although stating this, it is harder because there is so much to include. At the moment, there are a lot of songs coming out into the pop industry and therefore a lot of different bands and artists grasping for attention. This means in terms of my magazine, the readers will already be educated and will know what the trend is at the moment and will only be catching up on most of the gossip in the magazine. From my research I found my target audience would rather I focused my attention on new up and coming bands and artists, with the popular artists included at the side. The audience and readers like to have their own taste and they are not scared of what others think and what they say about their choices in the taste of music. The pop lovers are mainly full of people who love fun, bubbly music and love to interact and find out more about their inspirations unlike any other genre. When thinking about the styles of artists I also had to think about the way I would present these bands. I had to makes sure the bands had attention grabbing headlines and the images were sharp, unique and interesting. I needed to make sure that my target audience would want to pick up the magazine and actually read it, therefore most of the magazine had to have certain features added to it that would definitely grab the reader’s attentions. I had to make sure it was unique to all other pop magazines and would appeal to my target audience, especially to the gender.

 

The audience for my magazine are those of who are from the ages of 16-21. The social class for my magazine will be grade A. this focuses on the upper middle class who are able to afford quite a bit. It may also be graded as class C1, this is lower middle class who are of an administrative job or professional job. These job types will have a big impact on my magazine as it will be the majority of my target audience. The psychographics of my magazine will apply to lovers of music festivals, gigs and those who enjoy reading and keeping up to date with the latest news and information about music and their favourite bands and artists. I feel as if my target audience are very individual and are independent people who do not like to follow the crowd, but will disperse onto many different paths in the pop genre. Their social habits will be consumption via hard copies from shops such as WHSmith and newsagents, as well as reading online or on apps as they enjoy to be on the go.

Magazine Production

Production Diary

During the last few weeks, I have been finishing off my magazine and starting the cokpletion of my Evalations for the magazine. So far I have completed questions 1-3 and I am starting on question 4.