The Masthead
This is the font I chose to use for my final front cover for my magazine, I got this font from DaFont.com. I chose this as it is quite simple, and my magazine front cover is very simple with only one piece of text. This font is similar to mastheads used by other magazines, for example Vogue and Elle magazines. Even though these are not music magazines, they are very popular therefore I thought using a similar font to these would also attract a wide audience. I chose to name my magazine 'Pitch' as this is a musical word that would be associated with music and as my front cover does not give very much away as to what it is about die to the lack of text, I thought this title would be appropriate as the connection between the magazine and music can still be made.
I chose to use plain, black, block capital letters for my masthead as the black stands out on top of the plain white background. The image on the front cover doesn't include any black, so the masthead can also be easily read over the parts of the image that it is covering. I wanted the image to be placed behind the masthead as the masthead is one of the only pieces of text on the page and therefore I wanted it to be as bold and eye catching as possible. My audience feedback also helped me chose the font of my masthead. The font I chose was said to be more 'real' and 'professional' looking, whereas the others we not fonts you would usually see on a real music magazine.
The masthead I used for my contents page was quite conventional. When researching existing music magazines, I found a contents page that I liked the style and design of and I wanted to use the same style of masthead. Similarly to the magazine I researched, the colour of my masthead font ties in with the rest of my contents page.
MISE-EN-SCENE
For my images I used two different styles and looks. For my front cover, I used a girl with bold make up. I edited the contrast so that only her eyes and lips showed up on the page. This image was inspired by two magazine front covers I had seen, one by Bazaar featuring Katy Perry and another cover by Vogue.
I wanted my front cover to look stylish and quite glamorous. This is one of the looks I went for. I used this look in order to attract higher class women. I also wanted to keep the cover simple and classy as I wanted to portray this magazine as a 'special edition' in order to also attract buyers. The other look I went for was more indie. I did this as I wanted to attract more than one social group. I portrayed the more indie look in my contents and double page spread images. For these I used an attractive male, in order to still attract women, but the styles and poses used for the images was also to attract males. These two different looks show a contrast in British people and classes and shows the divide in the higher and middle classes. I did this in order for my magazine to appeal to a wider audience. I took some inspiration for my photographs for my contents and double page spread from music magazine Vibe.
This image features R n B artist Usher smoking. Even though smoking is a worldwide issue, it is still featured and shown in many magazines and photographs that the public have access too. I really liked the look and style of the smoking images I researched and came across in other magazines and wanted to capture the same look for my music magazine.
These two Vogue Paris magazine images features a female model smoking. These images were also an inspiration as they are quite daring but still manage to look sophisticated and classy.
COSTUME AND PROPS
For my images, I didn't really use any props as I kept all of my images quite simple. For my front cover, I used a close up of my model's face and this is the only thing of her you can see, meaning that for this image I did not use any specific costume or props. To make the image as bold as it is, I used bold make-up for my model. I used eye shadow, fake eyelashes and eye liner to make her eyes dark. I used lip gloss on my model's lips and then stuck sequins on her lips to give the bolder, more eye catching look as I wanted her lips to stand out as much as possible. I took the idea of using sequins on her lips from the Bazaar magazine front cover as Katy Perry who is featured on the cover has diamonds on her lips.
These are images for my contents and double page spread. The only prop I used was cigarettes and the only costume I wanted visible in the two images was this white and black t-shirt. In the Vibe magazine shown above featuring Usher, the only item of clothing visible was the shirt he was wearing and the cigar in his hand, which is the same style I wanted to portray in my photograph. I think keeping the props to a minimum made had a bigger effect on my image as it focused on the main aspect of the photograph, the smoke and the cigarette, which is what was shown in the Vibe music magazine.
For my images, I didn't really use any props as I kept all of my images quite simple. For my front cover, I used a close up of my model's face and this is the only thing of her you can see, meaning that for this image I did not use any specific costume or props. To make the image as bold as it is, I used bold make-up for my model. I used eye shadow, fake eyelashes and eye liner to make her eyes dark. I used lip gloss on my model's lips and then stuck sequins on her lips to give the bolder, more eye catching look as I wanted her lips to stand out as much as possible. I took the idea of using sequins on her lips from the Bazaar magazine front cover as Katy Perry who is featured on the cover has diamonds on her lips.
These are images for my contents and double page spread. The only prop I used was cigarettes and the only costume I wanted visible in the two images was this white and black t-shirt. In the Vibe magazine shown above featuring Usher, the only item of clothing visible was the shirt he was wearing and the cigar in his hand, which is the same style I wanted to portray in my photograph. I think keeping the props to a minimum made had a bigger effect on my image as it focused on the main aspect of the photograph, the smoke and the cigarette, which is what was shown in the Vibe music magazine.
WRITTEN CONTENT
In all three of my magazine products, the front page, contents page and double page spread, I used a minimal amount of text. I did this purposely in order to keep the main focus on the images. During my research, I found that I preferred the music magazines that applied this to their magazines. The magazines with a vast amount of text included did not appeal to me very much and came across as over whelming. I particularly liked one magazine I researched, Q magazine featuring Lady Gaga. I wanted to create a similar double page spread as this:
I think this double page spread makes a lot of impact and is very effective. The image takes up one whole side of the spread, and the main title on the spread takes up the majority of the opposite page. I think this is much more eye catching and memorable than one with a vast amount of text and not as much of a bold image. I took ideas from this magazine and designed my DPS as an introduction to an interview with a 'celebrity.' I used a bold text for the masthead and then included a smaller amount of text underneath, telling the reader what the following pages were going to be about.
For my contents page I again didn't include much text. I took my inspiration from a contents page I had researched. I liked the over all look and style of this contents page and wanted to take some aspects of this and use it in my contents page. I liked the amount of text used in this, as it did not look over whelming or off putting to read and the simple style drew me in to actually read it. The written content in my contents page in similar, as I have used a big number and then smaller text for each of the individual pages I am giving information about. However I placed my text along the bottom of the page rather than down the side of it. My written content in my contents page and double page spread was all put in a font which was easy to read which is very important as this can be very off putting to a reader.
LAYOUT
I used quite simple layouts for all three of my individual products. For my front cover I used a plain white background with a close up of a woman's face taking up the whole page. This was inspired by both of the magazines shown above, Bazaar and Vogue. I put a plain, black, block capital font across the top of the page and one simple line of black text in the bottom right hand corner. I did not include anything else on my front cover as I was creating this as a special edition. I would place the bar code, price etc on the back of my magazine in this case if it were a real life magazine.
For my contents page I used the image to take up the whole page. I then placed text over the image. I did this to show that the image is the main focus of the page. I placed the masthead 'CONTENTS' down the left hand side of the page in a darker colour font. I wrote information about the mentioned pages along the bottom of the page in a white font with a bolder, bigger text used for the number.
For my double page spread, I used the image as the main aspect on the spread, making it big enough to take up a whole side of the spread. I then used big, bold block text as the main title on the right hand side of the DPS with a little amount of text written underneath this. For the text I used lighter colours, white and greys.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product was aimed at younger females. I used an eye catching image on the front cover which would be the first thing the audience would see of my magazine. I think my front cover would represent young females between the age of 18 ans 25. This is due to the make up being worn by the female on the cover. The simple aspect of the front cover would appeal to younger people as they, stereotypically, would lose interest in the product if it included a large amount of text. I think over all my media product would represent outgoing, young people who are interested in a variety of music, not just one genre. My contents page includes information about a 'photoshoot with pop sensation...' and also an 'interview with Rihanna' this shows that the people being represented by my magazine would be people interested in Pop music as well as more RnB, Hip-Hop music due to the singer I have mentioned.
I did this as personally, I enjoy a wide variety of music and wanted to represent myself in my magazine as much as possible too and being an 18 year old female, these are the particular genres of music I have more of an interest in. For my double page spread, I created an interview with an up and coming star 'Daniel Waters' which I think would appeal more to males as it tells his story of how he got to where he is now. I think these kinds of stories, especially about male stars, appeals more to males. The image I used, a male smoking, I think would also appeal more to males. The colours used, dark greys etc, I think represents more Indie, Hip-Hop music which would represent the youths that are more interested in these genres of music. In addition, my inspiration for my contents page image came from a music video by Rihanna, called You Da One. In this there is a clip of her laying on her back blowing out smoke. I think that this may appeal to those who are fans of Rihanna, especially as on the contents page I have included 'Photo shoot and latest gossip from Rihanna' and these types of people are who I am aiming my magazine at.
3. What kind of institution would distribute your product and why?
Time Inc is the merger of the original Time Inc. and Warner Communications. They publish 130 magazines, including Vibe magazine. Vibe magazine is a magazine I got a lot of inspiration from for my magazine. Vibe magazine focuses mainly on RnB and Hip-Hop music, which is what I wanted my magazine to focus on too. Even though Vibe magazine is now mainly published online, target audience is predominantly young, urban followers of hip-hop culture. I think that Time Inc would be appropriate for my magazine to be published by as these are very similar aspects to how I want my magazine to come across.
Jann Wenner is the producer of Rolling Stones magazine. Rolling Stone magazine changed its format in the 1990s to appeal to younger readers, focusing on pop music. These are two aspects that I focused on in my magazine, appealing to younger people and also including information on Pop music and pop singers. I think that this company would be appropriate to use to publish my magazine as they are both quite similar. Rolling Stones magazine is quite quirky and risky in the photographs used and the written context published. I think that some of my images used (smoking images) could be seen as risky and could be disliked by some readers. This is why I think that this company would be good to use.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
My media product would be aimed at 18-25 year old males and females. I wanted to make my magazine appeal to both genders, however I think it would appeal more to females. This is largely due to the front cover, as this is the first thing visible. My front cover I think would appeal more to women as it features a woman wearing bold make up. My front cover has been kept very simple and does not give anything away about the type of magazine, which I think would intrigue females, but come across as less appealing for the males as they would only judge the magazine on what the cover picture shows. On the other hand, I think males would be more interested in my magazine based on the content inside. The interview I have created with the up and coming star 'Daniel Waters' would be an interview that males may take more of an interest in as they would want to read his story and could possibly relate to it more.
As I tried to base my magazine on my own interests in order to create a magazine I was more passionate about, I would expect my audience to be quite similar to myself. They would dress quite indie but slightly girly too. I would expect them to listen to a variety of music, such as pop, hip-hop, RnB, indie etc, and make use of their spare time by either working, going out with friends, being very sociable, going to festivals and be quite light hearted and not take things too seriously. I based this expectation on my audience research questionnaire I carried out. From my questionnaire I found that the majority of the people asked preferred Indie and RnB music, and that Reading Festival was a popular festival for them to go to.
For the majority of my magazine, when creating it I based it on things I liked myself, and being an 18 year old female I think I had quite a good grasp on what my own age group would be interested. I didn;t take any notice of my 'find your tribe' research, as this categorised me as a sport junkie. Although I enjoy keeping fit I wouldn't class myself as this stereotype and this was not who my magazine was aimed at. The socio-economic group that my audience would fall in to would be E - C1 as I would expect my audience to be younger, maybe students or at university or in a part time job, or even a full time job but still working at the lower end of the company/business.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
I attracted my audience through quite simple techniques. When creating my magazine I made my front cover as eye catching and memorable as possible as if this were to be made into a real life magazine, this would be the first thing to be seen. My front cover would attract younger females, who are part of my target audience. Younger females would be attracted to the front cover due to the bolder, bright colours and as very little text has been written on the cover it would intrigue them to read the rest of the magazine to find out what the 'special edition' is about. I used a simple font for all of the content and the mastheads, and also used basic standard English in order to make the written content as easy to read as possible. This would attract a younger audience as they are less likely to read larger amounts of more difficult text. I attracted the males by using the particular images I did. I think that including an article and photographs of a male will appeal to them more as they will be able to relate to it more. The colours I used in my magazine were used purposely to attract my particular target audience. I used the brighter colours for my front cover to attract younger females. I used greys, dark burgundy, and black for my contents and double page spread pages to attract younger males. I think these colours will also appeal to younger people who are interested in Indie, Hip-Hop and RnB music. I thought this as in my research I found a contents page from Vibe magazine including these similar colours, featuring a Hip - Hop rapper, so I decided to replicate this in my magazine to hopefully give the same style and attract the same kinds of readers of Vibe magazine. 
6.What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt a lot about the different technology I used during the making of this product as I had never really had to use these media technologies before.
Blogger is the online blog where I uploaded my work too. I had never used this website before and found it very easy to use. It laid out my work clearly and showed me easily what work I had to do and what I had done. I think posting the work online was a good idea for the teachers to have easy access to the work and give help along the way. This website enabled me to keep my work organised and tidy which helped when trying to see what I had left to do.
I used Photo Shop to edit some of my images I used in my magazine. I found PhotoShop quite difficult to use as I had never used it before so getting used to what icons changed and edit each particular thing was tricky getting used to. I only used PhotoShop when editing my front cover as I found that using this slowed down my production as I found it harder to use. I am pleased with the end product that PhotoShop helped edit, however I don't think it was necessary to use for the look I was trying to create with my contents and DPS images.
I used Power Point at the beginning of my coursework when completing my research. I put all of my research into powerpoints and then uploaded them to blogger. Using power point kept my work clear and organised and I was very familiar with this programme so found it very easy to use and get work done quickly and efficiently on.
I used my memory stick throughout the whole of my production to store and transfer my work. I found this way very easy as I could store a lot of work on the memory stick and moving it from my college computer account to my home laptop was very easy to do. I always had my work on my memory stick as back up in case I lost any on my computer accounts.
I used the website dafont.com to find the font for my mastheads. I used this website as they had a large variety of different fonts that were more appropriate for my magazine, instead of just using simple fonts on microsoft office programmes.
I used an IPhone 4 to take the images for my contents page and double page spread. I used an Iphone as they had the application already on it that I used to edit my photographs. The camera quality on this phone was also very good so my images still looked professional. I also used my BlackBerry to take the images for my front cover. Again the quality on this was very good so I didn't produce unprofessional looking images. Using phones to take the images was very easy as I could easily upload them onto the computer.
7.Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
Looking back, I have learnt a lot since creating my preliminary task. I have learnt how to use a wide variety of programmes used to edit the photographs and make them look more professional. I think I have become more knowledgeable about computers as a whole as I all of my work was done on a computer and online on websites. I had never used most of the programmes before having to create my own magazine and so learning how to navigate these sites and programmes has helped me with my over all media work.
My final front cover for my preliminary task does not look very professional or like a real magazine. I think being limited to one topic (a college magazine) made being creative more difficult, however I still feel that now I would have been able to create something much better after learning what I have learnt. In my preliminary task I haven't included actual written content on the page, this is as I wasn't very educated about magazines and what written content should actually be used on a cover. I feel that I am more aware now about what is appropriate to use here and what isn't.
For my contents page in my preliminary task, I also feel the same. I think now looking back there are a lot of things I would change. My fonts and colours used look very simple and boring. The image also doesn't look very professional and it doesn't look like something you would find in a real life magazine. Nothing really stands out on the page and it's not very eye catching or memorable.I feel that being given the chance to use more advanced programmes such as PhotoShop etc, I have learnt how to make my images look more professional. Through my research I have also learnt about good layouts for contents pages and DPS. I have learnt when to use more text and when to just let the image be the main aspect on the page. I have learnt what things go well together, such as colours images and fonts, and what written content grabs an audience and what doesn't. I think I have progressed a lot from when I created my preliminary task and now.
