Focus Group Video

MAGAZINE DRAFTS

SCHOOL MAGAZINE TASK

EVALUATION

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I think that the conventions that I have used in my music magazine are both commonly and uncommonly found in music magazines. For instance on the front cover I used the title of the magazine and its logo on the right hand side of the page when typically it would be found on the left hand side of the page. Although in the double page spread there is no real unsurprising conventions used the ones featured are quite typically found in most magazines I think I stuck to more traditional conventions because that is what suited the article I was created and the artist that was featured in my magazine. I think a factor that makes my magazine different and perhaps slightly less conventional than others is the use of only female artists throughout the magazine so in this sense the magazine is very female orientated like my target audience was a so for this magazine. In this sense I think the conventions that I have used have helped to attract my female audience more than maybe they would have say if I had stuck to typical music magazine conventions which largely attract more men than women. I think the image I have used for my front cover has challenged conventions slightly also by having the artist not posing face forward I think it creates a greater sense of interest from the female audience because it features her hair and clothes that she is wearing more as well as her makeup this is something that I think women may see from far away and pay more attention and be able to identify the magazine through elements such as this. This is one of the conventions that I have developed throughout my magazine pages because I wished to create a female music magazine that also incorporated fashion and style within.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The media product I have created appeals to young women largely who are very interested in fashion and mainly music, it is a female focused magazine. It represents young females through the use of images of the artists that are used both on the front cover and the rest of the pages within the magazine. The articles mentioned on the contents, front cover and also the article itself on the double page spread would be of interest to women and girls aged between 16 to 32 mainly. The magazine that I have produced is not focused on a particular subculture or genre of music but is largely focused on a broad range of music genres. But the thing that all the artists featured have in common is that they are all women. The artist on my front cover is dressed in an iconic and individual styled jumper that can be easily recognised and stand out on a shelf. It is an item of clothing that is quite covered up without being conservative but largely appeals to and would attract other women rather than men. So in this sense I wanted to create a magazine that would represent successful women in music and their fans more because I felt it was a market and group within the music magazine industry that was not being represented as well as it could be. The props that were used in my magazine were not about trying to represent a subculture but more trying to make the artist I used look more like an individual because that’s what I wanted for the feel of my magazine. The props used throughout the piece were all different to create and show different sides of each artist and to make the look like individuals so that all the readers could really relate to their different personalities as different types of women.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

 I think that Condé Nast would be the best publication house to publish my magazine, i think this is because some of its magazines such as Vogue, Teen Vogue and Glamour already attract some of my target audience so I think that it would be able to help my magazine and give it help to attracting more of it's target market because it has a lot of expertise when it comes to successful women's magazines.Although this is not the only reason I think Condé Nast would be the best publishers for my magazine because they do not actually have a music magazine so I think although they would have expertise in my magazine in one way I also think that it would be bringing a new genre and element to their publications and it would feature a magazien that they and the market both did not have on offer. 

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media project is women aged between 16 and 32 mainly but I’m sure that girls both under and over the target age that I have set will also be able to relate to the product and find it appealing to them. It is largely targeted at women and it is aimed to represent female artists in the music industry, so naturally it only features female artists within the magazine. I found a niche in the music magazine market by researching into what types of people felt unrepresented in the music magazine industry and I found that a lot of women and girls felt that a lot of the large music magazines were aimed at men and didn’t feature a huge amount of female artists that women were inspired by and looked up to both for their music that the artist makes but they also wanted to know more about their interests, personality and style. So that is why I thought that M magazine would be appropriate for many women because it would cover a number of their interests.

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I decided to make the pages of my magazine largely image focused because I wanted the readers to really see a lot of the artists in the pages of the magazine so that they could get a real sense of the artists style and who they represented. I think the cover would be aesthetically pleasing to the customer so I think by the costuming that I have used on the fornt page has made it quite attractive for my target audience and I think that it would be a cover that would catch their eye in a stall due to the clothes and makeup that I gave my artist for the front cover. The fonts that I have used on the front cover would also help to attract my audience to purchasing my magazine because they are quite feminine fonts that are featured on my logo and also in the main headline of the magazine where it says my artist’s name. But I have tried to keep it quite close to the key conventions of a music magazine by making the feminine writing contrast with a more bold and classic font that is very outline on the page keeping the look still like a traditional music magazine but also with a feminine touch to it. The colours I have used on my front cover also represent this as well I have gone for a pastel blue for the front cover although blue is traditionally a male colour I think the use of it in the pastel shade helps to bridge the gap between a traditional music magazine and a female magazine which is something I think is missing in the market. On the front cover I feel in the image used it is quite striking and would also address and appeal to my audience because the artist is covered up in a jumper but through the lips of dark red lipstick also shows her feminine side without looking overly girly or cliché which I think is something that my target audience would appreciate.

Q6.What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Before I started creating this product I did not know how to use Photoshop or even anything close to being able to open a page let alone a magazine I feel like I have been able to grow and develop my understanding of not only how to use Photoshop correctly but also what you need to be able to do to make a good magazine. I feel like when I first started using it some of the things I was doing on there were quite basic and did not take a lot of skill to do but it is through learning how to do different effects and techniques such as creating an outer glow on items or installing different fonts that suit my pages and help to improve them into what I imagined them being like. I feel that I have been able to develop my skill and technique on Photoshop but also I feel that through this over time my magazine has improved and turned into a far more professional looking piece than the one that I would have created at the start of this process.  

Q7. Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression form it to a full product?

As mentioned previously I feel like through what I have picked up and lessons that I have learnt throughout this process of creating and developing a magazine I have been able to create a product at the end that is far more professional than the one I would have been able to create at the start of this process. I think that the lack of effects used on my first preliminary task shows that I was not as comfortable and confident using Photoshop as I am now. I think I have also been able to create a product at the end that attracts to a target audience more than the original magazine that I made did, because in the preliminary task I do not think that I had created a magazine suitable for a target audience. 

Q8. Evaluate how successful your product is with your target audience using audience feedback

From the audience feedback I have received I think that my magazine has been successful in attracting my target audience which I was really pleased about, I asked a sample of twelve girls between the ages of 16 and 19 which falls into my target market group who all said that it is a magazine that they would be interested in buying because it would save them having to buy a lot of magazines a month both for music and fashion separately where they found that this would be an alternate option where they could buy one magazine that would cover all their interests and save them money. One bit of feedback I received from a couple of the people that I asked was that they felt that although they liked the idea they didn't feel that the cover star was into their type of music for looked like an artist that they would not really listen to. however the answer to this is that as the magazine had different issues I would be able to use a larger range of female artists on the cover which would appeal more to them. I also explained to my feedback group that within the magazine there was lots of artists of different genres it was just what they had in common was the fact that they were all female not that they all did the same genre of music.

FINISHED CONTENTS PAGE

FINISHED DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

FINISHED MAGAZINE FRONT COVER

Research and Planning mark

5/20

Costume / Props Planning

What I will need for my photo magazine shoot:

• Camera
• Tripod
• Outifts - black top/ dress
• Union Jack / American flag
• Red lipstick
• 2 models
• Red Ballons
• Gold String
• White Background

My Reader Profile

Lily,19 from London lives and breathes fashion but also has a passion for music. Music relates to her choice of fashion and vice versa they go hand in hand for her. A lot of other magazines are too based on genres she does not like and too many of the other magazines because they are too male orientated. This is why she reads M Music Magazine. Lily is a modern girl who lives a fast lifestyle where her likes and interests are always changing, she is a girly girl but loves music as well. She is a trend setter within her friends and wants to be up to date on all the latest trends and artists at the same time in one magazine. She looks to many female artists to get inspiration for her style. M Music Magazine gives her the opportunity to catch up on the latest styles whilst also getting an indepth look into the music, life, style and inspirations of her favourite female artist.

Generic Conventions of Music Magazines (NME)

One of the key conventions of NME, and most music magazines, is that it’s masthead has the same font and usually the same colour. NME usually ahs red text but due to the image in the background on this occasion it has been made white for visual purposes. However it is true to say that in the usual red heading there is white encorporated within the logo. It is always situated in the top left hand corner and many readers fid themselves looking for that as a key way to spot the magazine on the shelves. This however can have exceptions to if the image dominates the page sometimes part of the masthead and NME sign will be covered up but this doesnt stop people from noticing the magazine because they will know what is behind the image because it is an iconic NME sign.

This issue shown here breaks a lot of standard ‘NME conventions.’ The typical use of darker colours is replaced by a bright turquoise title which takes up a lot of room horizonatally across the page.  It is also unconventional across music magazines as a whole to use someone overly feminine on their cover especially since their main traget audience is men who want to read about types of music that are not overly girly usually rock or indie based bands and artists. therefore shows that NME are willing to offer some variety to their magazine to be unpredictable and appeal to different type of audience sometimes. This cover is also striking because instead of the white background that is usually featured it is an american flag that has been put on the wall behind.


The contents page has quite simple styling but is still wokring and effective for a coverpage, however it doesn't feature the NME masthead this time. The page numbers which would usually be found on a contents page do not dominate the contents page instead they only take up a small part of the page. The page is dominated by pictures of some of the artists and other people featured in the magazine, the use of pictures in this contents page helps to make the page look more interesting and eye catching. It also has a quote from each artist about what they will continue to talk about within the magazine. As can be seen above on each photo there is a large number which refers to what page the artsist is featured on so that it is clear to see which page the artist will want to go to.



 This is a typical example of a double page spread from NME, the page on the left is completely taken up by the image. This is not unusual to see in NME because on the adjacent page it is mainly text with some additional photos of the band featured. Also, the names of bands are in bold and coloured pink, this allows the reader to be able to easily recognise theartsist because of the very few other colours that are used in the rest of the magazine which is another key convention. . At the top of each corners is the word "Live!" this is an attractive feature to the reader because they are drawn into reading it more because it has a feeling of being more exclusive and current. This is another key convention because it makes the reader feel like they shoudl buy this magazine because they will be getting something that no other magazine has. The otehr key conventions that you can see above is that it ahs a very large, bold and easy to read title and also it has quite a few exclusive pictures many of which have been slanted for effect.

Denotation
The magazine cover consists of a sepia style image of an wrist looking directly into the camera whilst being slightly angled away from the camera. It is a close up head shot of the artist who is posing as if she is biting her necklace. Her hand is also visible on the front cover and you can visibly see her long red nails to add to her image. The background you can slightly tell is a light coloured colour but the main image of her hair and face fills up the main space on the front cover.

The masthead is featured on top of the picture of the artist, whereas the artists name is on the bottom in a contrasting text to the masthead. This text may have been used to reflect the artist who on this magazine is Beyonce.The font in which the artists name is written is a classic font which is quite girly but also has bold characteristics. One of these would be that it is written in capital letters which make the artist seem like she is importnace and a big deal; it helps her to exert authority and command. It creates a sense of power within the industry and the old style of font combined with the picture behind gives a feel that the artist is both a modern artist but also a timeless one. This contrasts with the masthead, the masthead is in a very modern font and also has burts of colour within in helping to connect with a younger audience. In the USA Billboard own the record charts company so because they tell people who is the current number 1 they want to create a newer and fresher feel to the magazine by creating the masthead in such a way.

The Cover photograph is of Beyonce.  She is posed in a very suggestive kind of way by the way she is biting a necklace she is holding and her finger which has a bright red nail polish on. You cannot see her clothing so the image entirely focuses on her face and facial expressions. This appeals to both male and female readers who would want to buy the magazine, it does not show a sexualised image for men but a tasteful headshot of the artist that could appeal to both genders.  The type fo headshot that it used may be reflective of some of the artists album covers that she has recently have which have the same styling and effect as to what is here on the front cover. The backcombed hair and the necklace helped to add to the fierce image that the artist is trying to portray.

The main coverline that relates to her photograph says:

'Live at Roseland ; Elements of 4'

This refers to a concert in Roseland that she held as part of a series of live performandces that she did called '4 Intimate Nights with Beyonce' ; it is also the name of the DVD that she released after she did these performances in the Roseland Ballroom in New York City in 2011. This is explained in the other writing that is on the front cover it is all about Beyonce and her performances in Roseland and her DVD that accopmanies it. This shows that having Beyonce on the fornt is a huge deal because of how big of an artist she is in the industry and the power that she holds within it.