Front Cover (Main Task)

Contents Page (Main task)

Double Page Spread (Main task)

Front Cover (Preliminary)

Contents Page (Preliminary)

Evaluation Question 7

Evaluation Question 6

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

Evaluation Question 5

How did you address/attract your audience?

I collected information from a sample of a focus group to give me feedback on my magazine and to see what their initial thoughts were.

As you can see they understood what type of magazine it was and why some features were used, one person from the group pointed out the resemblance of Michael Buble which is perfect because that was the look I was going for. I was given some constructive criticism and I went and made the changes to my magazine to make it attract my audience and address them correctly.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the target audience for your media product?

When I was creating my magazine I had to research into my target audience and a niche market for my product (genre). The target audience for my magazine are both male and females that range from the age of 16-30 and have an interest in pop music. The majority of my target audience would be in the social grade of C1, C2 and D (Lower-middle Class, Skilled Working Class and Working Class). I created Character Profiles whilst carrying out this research and here are the two Profiles that I came up with:

Evaluation Question 3

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

A media institution is a company that distributes a certain product and I obviously need to focus on institutions that distribute magazines.

Main Media Institutions:

• Bauer Media
• IPC Media
• Development hell ltd.

The two main institutions are Bauer Media and IPC Media. The magazine market is in a uncertain state partially due to the takeover of technology and online use. This means that institutions need to be careful when thinking about taking on a new magazine because they need to find the best magazine that will help the company financially. Print sales are being decreased and companies are distributing their product across multi-platforms such as online, Mobile phone, table etc.

I have come to the conclusion that IPC Media would be a better choice for my magazine because they are missing a Pop magazine and this would benefit them because they would be reaching out further and they could help my product make the switch over to digital whilst still keeping it in print because they're the UK's leading Digital distributers.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Here is the image that I used for my front cover in comparison to Michael Buble, obviously there are differences but I had to change things in my image to make it look more like a Music magazine whereas Michael Buble is known worldwide and most people would think that the magazine is going to be talking about a music when they see his face. However in this issue of my magazine it is showing young talented people that  arent that famous yet. 

I still do believe that these images do have similarities though, the clothing and angle of the shot. The lighting used for my image lacks the proffessional look so that is one thing that I would improve if I had the chance to, I may try to make it a bit lighter in photoshop for my final product. 

The image compared had a slight inspiration to my front cover but obviously I had to tweak it slightly I also had some other images from my style model (Q). I did show the model some examples of what I wanted him to look like then I asked him to pretend to sing (a feature I added to the image myself). I also researched hair styles of people that the artist found inspirational:

The hairstyle that I decided to use was Frank Sinartra's which was like a comb over also the artists main inspiration was Frank Sinartra so it makes it more suitable to use this one.

The social group that my magazine represents would be people who listen to pop music, do "mainstream" things and our from the ages of 16-30. I have chosen this age range because I dont think under 16's would be interested in a music magazine and I also believe that people over the age of 30 will lose interest in famous pop stars and what is going on in the music industry but that doesnt mean that there wont be people out of the age range chosen not buying this product.

Evaluation Question 1

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

I looked at a variety of different layouts when I was researching existing magazines at an earlier date, the magazines that I looked into included "Q", "Kerrang", "NME" and "Mojo". The house styles of these magazines mainly chose three colours to use consistently throughout their magazine. Here you will see a comparison of the magazines that I looked at and my magazine:

I chose to use orange, black and white (My background is a white/grey gradient) but these were chosen to establish a house style and identity for my Magazine so that consumers can recognize my magazine easily.

The genre that I wanted my magazine to be would be Pop but it also could be classed as a Jazz magazine because I featured an "artist" called "Lewis Wilde" who was "inspired by Frank Sinartra". The conventions that I considered when making my magazine were:

• Title of the Magazine
• Font and Style
• Costumes and Props
• Mise-en-Scene of Images
• People
• Content inside (Written)
• Genre and how its displayed
• Front Page Layout
• Contents Page Layout
• Double Page Spread Layout

The title I chose for my magazine was "Chord" and the reason for this is because it is a word that relates to music so it gives the audience a clue about this magazine when they havent purchased the product before. The definition of Chord is: 'A group of (typically three or more) notes sounded together, as a basis of harmony.' A unique feature in my title is that the first letter has a black background behind it (Keeping house style) which is used as the logo for the magazine, the idea was obviously influenced from the "Q" logo but I added a title to my logo to make it challenge the conventions of the other magazines. My title also includes a sub-title which is "Young talent in the North West" this also indicates another clue to the audience (that the magazine includes talented people from the North West). The font that I chose for my title was Bebas which I downloaded from dafont.com. I chose this font because it looks smart but it is also very bold allowing you to make that word stand out. I researched into what fonts other magazines use and almost all of them used San Serif but I wanted my magazine to be different.

When I thought about the use of Mise-en-Scene in my front cover image I had to research clothing, lighting and angle of the shot. I knew that I had to get the correct clothing to connote what genre my magazine was, I found that most of the clothing for a pop magazine was informal but my front cover artist had more of a jazz influence but he was still a pop artist but it was hard to make him connote the genre I wanted (pop) he supposed to be like Michael Buble so I found that he had to look smart and that is why he wore a suit (I was going to get him a hat but decided not to so he could display his hairstyle).

For the fonts and style I wanted to give it a Pop/Modern feel so that it would connote the genre of my magazine and I was trying to get my audience to recognize what type of magazine it was and what genre it was straight away. The content in my magazine is a mixture of formal and colloqiual language. I also made use of buzz words on my front cover as you can see "Exclusive" is put in the font Bebas and the colour of the word is changed to make it pop out at the audience. The fonts that I used in my magazine are: Bebas, Geo Sans and Neou.

The genre I was trying to connote has been achieved in many ways, The Main ways being the model on the front cover, His clothes suggest that he is smart, well-off and modern and the fonts and language that was used.