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?

There are many skills that I have learned since I created my school magazine which has enabled me to create a very professional music magazine. Since my first time using InDesign and Photoshop I have been able to develop skills in these programs that has given me a better knowledge of how to use these programs to their full potential.

I have slowly but surely learned how to layout my pages as when I first began with my school magazine there was little consideration as to what goes where. But once I moved onto the research of magazines I began to understand how each page should be laid out.

In much of my final pieces I have used the 'stroke' tool to give the text headings an edge when featuring on the background as they tended to blend in until I did this.

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

The main programs I have used throughout are Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop. I have found these fairly easy to use and they are very effective at getting the desired process. These programs have allowed me to alter my own images and text to a high standard to make my magazine look realistic. I used effect tools such as 'blur', 'magnetic lasso', 'sharpen', 'shadow', stroke' and 'crop' to do this.

I used these programs on an iMac and Macbook which I also found easy to use. This product allowed me to use the programs which would make my magazine look realistic.

I also used various other technologies such as websites which include Blogger.

I also used a high quality digital camera to make my images which I used in my magazine in various areas. I also found this easy to use and manoeuvre without the images becoming blurred due to camera shake.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

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

My magazine will target both male and female readers from the age of 15 and onwards, as it is looking at a more student market. It will appeal to those individuals who have a passion for the latest trends in music and who wish to learn more about the industry itself and the artists who represent it. On the other hand it will also target those individuals who wish to learn more about music festivals and gigs as this is commonly used in music magazines by which they review tours and line-ups for festivals. Having fewer restrictions allows my magazine to appeal to the highest number of customers as possible. This allows me to get a higher profit than say if I limited the magazine to only males, and making money is the highest priority of these sorts of magazines.

Here is a typical image of the type of person that would most likely purchase my magazine because of the type of clothes he is wearing as the age he is. The sorts of television programs my target audience is likely to watch is MTV & Hollyoaks, as these are marketed towards teenagers like my magazine is. This sort of person is likely to shop in Topman, River Island, Burton and H&M as they design clothes suited to this target audience, while they would also shop at many designer outlets. This magazine will provide information which the audience will talk and chat about with their friends who want to be the first to know all the latest news and song releases.

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

With my magazine being based on music, one media institution which could distribute my magazine is Bauer Media Group. This is because the company distributes several successful music magazines such as Q along with many other magazines. This institution may be looking to reach alternative age groups as the majority of music magazines focus on adults. My magazine is aimed at students and could be exactly what the company is looking for. Bauer Media Group could also market my magazine involving the internet which will interest younger audiences. This cross media advertising will benefit the institution as this is one very popular area of the market, which is easy to target and spread the word advertising the magazine. Bauer is known to market their products further using such areas as radio and television. They do this using television and radio stations for some of their magazines. This is also a successful way of targeting the teenage audience.

Bauer webpage URL: http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

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

The image on the right is from my own music magazine whereas the other is from a very successful music magazine. My image on the left is taken of someone who is not really a musician but the one on the right is. There are several similarities along with other differences between these images. They are both similar artists and I tried to show the same effect with my magazine. A similarity which gives off the best effect is the facial emotions which both show a cheeky yet confident smile. Another similarity that I noticed between the two pictures is the prop, using a hat to show a more playful side for both of these pictures. Also both of these pictures have been taken in a public outside location allowing the artists to seem more down to Earth. However there are differences as my image has not been air brushed to give a more pure look where as mine has just been taken and not air brushed. The Q magazine image is different to many other images and mine as I am comparing this with mine; the professional image is of a different shot to mine. However I am not entirely sure what to define their shot as it takes the whole of the artist yet he is crouched.

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

Title of the magazine

The title, or masthead, of my music magazine, TRICK, is displayed at the top left of the front cover, covering a large area of the front cover so it stands out. This is usually seen in most magazines of various genres as it is the focal point of the magazine so it can be recognised easily. It also follows the rest of the magazines colour scheme, being green, white and black. This is a convention which many successful magazines use. The TRICK font is sharp and bold to show how it is about the new style of music that is the latest and greatest hits during the time. I feel this is a very common style of font for a new/contemporary music magazine title as it is very bold and sharp so it is likely to stay in their mind when they see it.

Mise-en-scene of image
For my front cover the mise-en-scene of the images is very important, as for nearly all magazines the images are the main focal point and what draws the audience in. With my main image I decided to place it on the right side of the page as this is also a norm for many magazines of all genres. This is because then there is lots of room for subtitles all over the page about different articles within the magazine.

For my contents page I used a large image of the same person on the front cover to relate back to the front cover. All of the other images used are small and are related to articles on my contents page.

I used the photo album look on my double page spread, where the image related to the interview of the chosen artist. The other image which dominates the left page shows the artist who is interviewed this has a quote at the bottom of the image, the image is of the guy looking arrogant which relates to the rest of the pictures of him and the interview content.

Costumes and props
On my front cover the artist is wearing what is stereotypical of a band member to wear as it is this skinny style that shows off how thin they are. He also has a mobile phone and an ipod in his hands as this is to relate to the arrogance of the artist, as he is portrayed to 'not give a damn' about anything other than himself.

On my contents page, similar clothes are for this artist to again fit this stereotype of this particular musician. In the large image of a girl band they have all been given microphones to pretend that they are in a rehearsal and the clothes they are wearing are typical of a pop group. In the image at the top left of the contents page the girl is pictured wearing clothes as if she was off to a rave to show her attitude. The two other images show two different lads that are in trendy male clothes that would be expected of a young male to wear in order to be fashionable.

On the double page spread, the artist on show is wearing a skinny shirt to suggest the genre of music and target audience as teenagers are often known for wearing this style of fashion. The prop of the ipod relates to the information within the interview as it adds the sense of being down to earth even though he is famous.

Music genre and how your magazine suggest it
The music genre which my magazine is referring to is pop, alternative etc the magazine mainly focuses on what is the latest big thing in the music industry. This is shown and suggests it in various ways in my opinion. Firstly it is the images of the artists and how they are presented, along with the colour scheme used throughout the magazine. The best example of these colours in my opinion are shown on the double page spread. The text and font can suggest the alternative genre as the large fonts use a bold rhythm along with the wording of the text and names of the artists.

Written content
The content within my music magazine pages is easy to read and easy to understand and there is no background colours which effect the text. The large text on the front cover is noticeable from a distance to highlight the artist and draw the audience in. This is a norm for well known magazines as it is the main source of bringing the target audience in. The magazine features content such as lists of artists, various advertisements which highlight content inside the magazine and paragraphs of text showing information from an interview. The interview is an informative article instead of using the questions and answers, in order as it brings more to the article than just the bland answers.

Layout

The layout is very straight forward as I have aligned the masthead of the front cover at the top with the barcode and price at the bottom. The titles on the page are all around the image except that of the image which is on top of the artist as it is about him. There is a bar along the top with different artists that are in the magazine, but are not seen as important to entice the reader to purchase the magazine.

The contents page is laid out so that there is a large banner along the top, with a list of features in the magazine down the left column. There are lots of images on the contents page with the page number of that corresponding image.

The double page spread has one page that is taken up by a whole image of the artist that is interviewed with a large quote at the bottom. Then on the second page of the double page spread is three columns of text, a breaker line between the text and the bottom of the page with a subscription URL, page number, distribution date and the name of the magazine. At the top of the page is a title for that article so the reader knows what it is about.