Final Contents Page

Final Double Page Spread

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

Conventions in NME compare similarly to my own; 

I kept with the conventions of a music magazine is to ensure my music magazine fits with expectations of a  magazine, I did analysis of three different magazines to look for continuing evident conventions to make my magazine look like generic. I had to take all of these conventions on board and ensure my magazine had all of the codes and conventions evident to look like a magazine, as seen in comparisons to magazines below;
Conventions are important as this shows and notify the reader of the magazine and its context without these codes and conventions it would be difficult to sell the product and initial it would not look like a magazine. Important factors are areas like a bar code which allows the magazine to be sold and the name of the magazine to identify the magazine itself.

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

 Before creating my product I wanted to look at demographics and social economics to gain insight and to help me when producing a product for a particular target audience. My target audience are the lowest grade workers the reason for choosing this particular social classes as my target group is students they fall under grade E in the table as they don’t tend to have any income. Demographics help me see measurable characteristics of my consumer such as age, gender, race, education, and income to help target my magazine well to my audience. I used more images than text so my reader wouldn't lose interest in my magazine and continue to buy it on a regular basis. I did this by shaping my  magazine around what will best appeal to my  target market by looking at the demographics for this particular group. 

My price for my magazine will be £2.20 the reason for this price is it is affordable for my target audience which are students and will aim at the lower social classes rather than the upper class. I chose the price by looking at existing magazines such as Kerrang who also sell their magazine for £2.20   unlike Q who aim at a higher target market and sell theirs for £3.99; this price would not be suitable for a student as they don't have an income.

The free gifts/ prizes I have advertise for my magazine for things involving gigs/festivals as the age of my audience will be young and interested, as my magazine will be a music magazine these gifts fit best. Looking at the demographic table it seems best fitting that I allow for prizes as the lowest grade workers 'depend on the welfare state for their income' meaning they don't have plenty of money themselves to be buying tickets for gigs/festivals.

The social class table has helped me with my feature stories and understanding my target audience by allowing me to shape my text to appeal to D/E classes by knowing their viewing habits. By looking at these characteristics of my audience it helps me understand how to aim my magazine; it consequently helps to differentiate how to appeal directly at my audience. I will use reviews, Q&A and short stories for my audience as it's best fitting to use shorter stories as seen in NME/Q to keep my audience interested. 

To further my knowledge  on my target audience I created a reader profile after researching NME and other existing magazine reader profiles and gain understand from what the indie rock genre magazine aims for when reaching their target audience. I have a higher amount of males interested in the magazine meaning most of my stories would have to be best aimed at them for interest. I also asked 7 questions to a social group to ensure I knew what my audience wanted and what it should entail as well as knowing about the price ect.

 I stereotypes my target audience to what I would expect from the ago group chosen of 19 years, the msic genre indie rock has popular bands such as Arctic Monkeys, Jamie T, ALT-J which I have found from my prior research. I used this to guide me to what my target audience will expect by further subjecting my readers to follow similarly in clothing as their idols from this genre. A lot of indie rock bands go to festivals to perform and are the lifestyle for many of these artists consequently I offered festival and gig ideas to aim at this type of age groups for this reason. I used a brick wall fit with my mise-en-scene I found a whit background can not really tell the genre of a magazine straight off and that is something I wanted to be able to create with the use of images. I used a brick wall as on my previous research I found out existing magazines used it also.

I looked at indie rock genre itself and how the artist have similar costumes when looking at the genre which can see in my research below;

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

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

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract and address my audience I researched certain features which would ensure my audience would enjoy the magazine and attract them to my genre. I used a questionnaire to get feedback from my audience and see what they think of my magazine, I asked friends  who read magazines their opinion. I gave them 5 questions and my magazine contents, double page spread and front cover to look at;

Here are the answers; 

1. From question one I feel I attracted my audience by ensuring I had similarities to other existing magazines which would make mine identifiable to anyone who regularly reads NME, MOJO  or Kerrang and consequently feel I have achieved reaching my audience by the answers I got from my questionnaire . 

2. All of the replies I got where positive and ensured my price wasn't too expensive for my audience to buy and all of the people I asked would buy or subscribe to my magazine just by looking at the basis of it. 

3. Additionally I got good feedback in terms of how my magazine looked and followed codes and conventions  of magazines types by the colour scheme and features stories presented. 

4. The replies I got back where mixed in terms of gender some saying males and some saying mixed which is what I wanted to achieve in terms of attracting an audience. 

5. Question 5 gave me feedback I wasn't expecting as most of the answers I got suggested my magazine was aimed at teens when I wanted it to be aimed at 19 year old students meaning my magazine could look childish or not mature enough for the older generation.

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

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

Print Screen Process of Making My Double Page Spread

I have print screened my process of creating my double page spread when using Photoshop.

1. I opened a document on publisher on A3 and positioned my photo onto the file and to ensure The image fitted on to the page in a correct way which it only covered half the page. I chose this image as I feel it fits my Indie Rock genre by the use of the prop (guitar) and the stance and posed look of my model helps encourage this.

2. Next I added the logo of my magazine 'Phoenix' onto the bottom right hand corner of the page which is a typical convention of a magazine, and also added the page number of '13' which corresponds to the number on my contents page to continue continuity 

3. Next I added the credit to the writer of the article, the photographer and the artist in the bottom left hand corner which can be seen in other magazines such as NME. I used the font type 'Agency FB' in the font size '11' 

4. I then proceeded into adding the title of the double page spread article which has a pull quote involved. I used the font type 'Agency FB' in the size '54' to tie in with the rest of the page. I positioned the text so it didn't fall in the middle of the page like an actual magazine and the text would be disfigured if it was folded. I put the two words in red to break up the text and I used red so it fitted with my colour scheme. 

5. I then added to lines using the line tool and  changed the width of the lines to '2' to make it thicker and placed it in the colour red the same as the pull quote and my colour scheme. I used the lines to break up the article and the title. 

6. I added the photo credit and words in this box as I have seen it in NME (can be seen in my research below), as I think this fills in the space on my page.  I used the font type 'Agency'

7. I added the boxes around the name, words and photo credits and changed the opacity of the boxes to be less dense i made it 67%.

8. I looked at an NME double page spread on Arctic Monkeys and saw the 'playing at reading and Leeds' festival logo and decided to use it on my own, however it says '2009' on the logo and I had to change the year by covering the logos up.

9. I then saved the Photoshop work as a JPEG and opened it on publisher to make it easier for editing the text. I also saved it as a workable copy in case anything needs changing. I then added a text box and added a drop cap within the text box by using the tool available. I then wrote in my article which I wrote at a previous date, I put the questions in red to break up the text. I used the font type Agency to correspond with the title. 

 10. I then wanted to add more to the page where the photo is as I feel it looks bare, I added a track list and the ratings of the songs which I feel is something a reader will find interesting, I took this idea from a previous NME article on Arctic Monkeys

11. I have now added the Instagram and Twitter logos onto my page by saving the Publisher work as a JPEG and opening it on Photoshop to ensure it looked how I wanted. I then added the @ addresses by using the text tool.

12. After creating a track list I wanted to create an album cover to go with it, I opened an image of Harriet onto Photoshop and clicked new layer and the magic wound tool to delete the background. 

13. I then transferred the image to the square similar shape to an album

15. I didn't like the image so I opened a different one and transferred it across and kept the original background instead of having it white. I then added text in Agency FB and added the title to keep it simple

16. I added the album work across onto my final double page spread by saving the image as a JPEG 

DRAFT 1:

DRAFT 2:

Contents Draft 2

Here is my second contents after I have made changes to my first draft. 

Third/Fourth Front Cover Draft

Original Image:

 Front Cover Draft 3:

AFTER CHANGES:

NEW CHANGES;

New Images for My Magazine

I've took some more images to use on my magazine as my own images where not suitable for my magazine. I retook my images with another new model to ensure a different look of my magazine. my old images can be used for my contents page for feature stories.

 I wanted a background on my new images as the first lot of photos didn't look the best with a white background and made my first draft look like a poster rather than a magazine, I took the images outside on a brick wall to give the indie vibe. I like these two images as the wind is blowing hew hair from her face and looks posed. 

Again I photographed her against the wall and the we ran into a problem when taking the images as the wind picked up and it became harder to control the direction of her hair and ended up with the hair across her face.

 After running into this problem I then decided to take the picture of the brick wall and go take the next lot of images in the green room at college, I will use the image of the brick wall to place any other images over the top by using Photoshop and still get the desired look I want. 

 These two images are similar other than I changed the shot type from a medium long shot to a medium shot to give two different types of photos, I like these two images and would use them in my magazine as a front cover or double page spread image

 These two images are similar again and are the same shot but with different lighting, I like the images as the red lipstick stands out.

 Again these images show two different types of framing and I would use them for my magazine 

 The image on the left isn't serious and wouldn't use for my magazine, the image on the left is something i would consider using 

 We used a prop from the green room of sunglasses to give a different look, the image on the right is something I would consider using for my magazine

 Again we used the sunglasses and used different framing types to structure the image and give a different look

 I decided to use a prop of a guitar to give the music vibe of my magazine, this makes the model look involved with the music scene. I like the image on the right and would use it in my magazine.

 The image on the left is an image i would use for my magazine with editing on Photoshop to ensure the lighting is correct the image on the right however isn't suitable as it is not serious.

 These two images are not suitable for my magazine the lighting and the positioning of the prop doesn't look genuine for my magazine 

 I wouldn't use these images as the positioning and the way the model is stood is not suitable nor is it a image I like to use for my magazine.

These two images are not something i would use on my magazine as the images are dark and not serious and the image on the right shows her hiding behind the guitar rather than looking comfortable 

Again these images are not serious and I wouldn't use them on my magazine

I like these two images as the look different and make the model look in contact with the audience and show her love for music

I particularly like the image on the left as my model  is positioned in the framing correct and has a serious face which I wanted, I don't like the image on the right as the model isn't looking at the camera

 I like these two images and would possibly use the in my magazine the positioning is correct and gives an indie feel 

 The image on the left is not serious and something I wouldn't use in my magazine as it gives a comedy feel rather than a music magazine. The image on the right i would use as it is positioned nicely and the model is looking at the camera

I like these two photos and would use them in my magazine as the positioning and the prop is suitably posed and looks like a photo you would see in a music magazine