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

For a start I didn't use PaintShop in my preliminary task so I developed my PaintShop skills with my Music Magazine although I didn't use many functions that PaintShop has to offer.
     I don't believe I failed in my preliminary tasks however I experimented more with InDesign for my Music Magazine which allowed me to achieve a more sophisticated look, however I believe that look was needed for the Music Magazine.
     There is a wider variety of text fonts in my Music Magazine compared to my Student Magazine, although both have a constant colour scheme throughout. However my Student Magazine has more images than the Music Magazine.
     The contents of the Music Magazine was also more sophisticated than the one in my preliminary task as it just contains images and a contents but I did highlight the cover stories in my Music Magazine as I did in my first task.
     All in all I have learnt and extended skills in PaintShop and Indesign and managed to achieve two different magazines that would be acceptable and attractive for each audience.

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

This is the first time I have ever had to use the Adobe InDesign & PaintShop software.
The PaintShop technology allowed me to tweak and improve my pictures, by getting rid of the ‘Red eye’ in each of my images and making the colour balance equal, other than that I didn’t use PaintShop for anything else on my final front cover. I did play around with its functions originally, changing the contrast and hue and adding different effects such as black & white, engraved, embossed and blur but realised that it wasn’t helping me achieve the image I wanted for my cover. InDesign allowed me to make my front cover what it is, with its different texts and effects, like shadows, bold, italic and faded, which allowed me to create a different look for each title and heading.

Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

♥ I am a 'girly' girl
♥ I am 17
♥ I love fashion
♥ I love R&B
♥ & I love pink


I took into consideration all of the things I like and used that as a mode of address, that way if I was to see it I would find it attractive and want to read it. Because I used myself as the root for my audience I could understand what others in the same social groups as myself would like and find attractive. This included

♥ The featured artists
♥ The pictures
♥ The content:
- The competitions
- The pictures
- The colours
- The singers
- The music
- The interviews 
♥ The overall appearance

Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

It is perfectly clear by the style and contents of my cover that it is not aimed at rock fans, unlike KERRANG. Just by the style of the artists featured for a start; Blair sponsors a high street chiffon jumpsuit, accompanied with colourful beads around her neck and a loose, messy up-do with a simple pallet of make-up. However KARRANG's artist is neck to fingers in tattoos, a grade one hair cut and a black motif t-shirt. Although neither are one end of the extreme to the other with their choice of clothing they are both very different. Anyone could sport their style but we have to take into consideration their poses. KARRANG's artist is featured screaming down his microphone, which he is holding with both hands, and his eyes are tightly shut, in comparison with EUPHORIA's artist, she is facing to the right, eyes avoiding the camera with a hand on her hip. EUPHORIA's cover image is a lot softer than KERRANG's, and so is its music.
     EUPHORIA's colour scheme of pink and black is also very feminine in contrast with KERRANG's black red and white, but the style of text is also very different - EUPHORIA's text is in both lower case and capital letters, with a range of fancy text types; however all of KERRANG's text is in basic capital letter and bold colour.
     The other artists featured/mentioned on the front cover are also a big give away. KERRANG features SLIPKNOT and APOCALYPTICA who are also 'rock/ metal/ punk' artists, but EUPHORIA mentions artists such as Rihanna, Beyoncé and Alicia.K - also big 'R&B' artist. The feature artist CONVERGE in KERRANG have also been around for the last two decades so their fans are likely to be older than your teen, however EUPHORIA's Blair is only in her late teens and has only just hit the charts so her fans are likely to be teens and early 20s.
     I believe it's safe to say that EUPHORIA's target audience is 'girly' girls of an age range from 15 to 25 who are into high street fashion and R&B music.

I believe my double page spread supports my target audience that I aimed for in my front cover. Blair portrays a positive image of 'typical' girls around her age - her audience. She talks about all the stereotypical things that 'girly' girl social groups of that age do... boys, fashion, food, best friends and texting.
     R&B is the norm for a clubbing scene, those who like clubbing generally like to socialise. Those who are into fashion tend like shopping and usually consider it more of a hobby more than an experience, and those same people who like to shop tend to have a very big wardrobe. Anyone who has a big wardrobe likes to show it off so they therefore socialise, and clubbing is usually the best place to do this.   
     All of the above support the ideas of an R&B lover, and it is normally visually supported too.

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

Bauer Media Group is a large German publishing company based in Hamburg, and operates in 15 countries worldwide. It would be a perfect company to produce EUPHORIA
     They already publish two big music magazines: Q and KERRANG!
However Q is more of a review music magazine with a mixture of artists instead of being aimed at a specific genre, and KERRANG! is a rock music magazine. EUPHORIA would therefore fill a gap in their portfolio with its R&B and fashion contents. Because of their worldwide circulation the group magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week so they therefore have the resources, finances and recognition to help make EUPHORIA a success.

Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social group I am aiming to intrest would be the young female fans of R&B who appreciate fashion. Maybe not the 'typical' teenage girl but the stereotypical young girl. Blair sponsors a high street chiffon jumpsuit, accompanied with colourful beads around her neck and a loose, messy up-do with a simple pallet of make-up; this supports the idea she is fashion fanati, however she is facing to the right - eyes avoiding the camera with a hand on her hip, maybe this represent the attitude that comes with fashion - not that they are 'up themselves' but that they do have a visible attitude.     

     The colour scheme includes pink and black is also very feminine which represents women in general where pink is recognise as the 'girls colour', like a boys is blue. EUPHORIA's text is in both lower case and capital letters, with a range of fancy text types; possibly suggesting that those who belong to this social group do care what other see as it has to appear attractive.

     The other artists mentioned on the front cover are also highly recognised women such as Rihanna, Beyoncé and Alicia.K they are also very feminie women, who many idolise. They support Blair's image on the cover; the image of fashion, make-up and attitude that represent's the typical women who would be 'into' R&B music.

   I believe it's safe to say that EUPHORIA represents the 'girly' girl social group of an age range from 15 to 25 who are into high street fashion and R&B music.

I believe my double page spread supports the representation of the social group that my front cover achieved. Blair portrays a positive image of the girls around her age who are into the same things as her; she talks about all the stereotypical things that 'girly' girl social groups of that age do... boys, fashion, food, best friends and texting but with just the right attitude.
    

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

I don't think my magazine challenges any real media conventions, as I based my magazine on a real magazine called VIBE. I believe it's a classy, modern looking magazine and doesn't seem to cram too much onto the front cover - which I think can spoil a cover. By using a cover like this as a base I was able to achieve a similar look - which I was aiming for.
     I like the look of VIBE magazine but I chose this kind of lay out because it has already been accepted in the media world, and it seemed easier than making up my own look which would have challenged media forms. I did originally try and challenge the 'norms' by having my title positioned vertically in the top left corner, but then decided it wasn't a risk worth taking.
     I did however develop from my base cover and create my own - I didn't completely copy it. Both have similar texts and identical colour patterns, the bar codes are also positioned in the same place and both feature a singer's quote. However each have a different colour schemes, and our featured artists are positioned differently, Ciara is in the centre of VIBE magazine, but Blair is placed to the left or Euphoria. VIBE has a banner of text at the top of its cover, unlike Euphoria, but Euphoria does have a tag line under its title, whilst VIBE missed that out. Euphoria only contains 5 cover stories, compared to VIBEs 8 - not including those in the banner.
     So although I did have an idea and a magazine cover in front of me to copy I did make my product my own.

04/04/11

   

I have FINALLY finished my 3 tasks: front cover, double page spread and contents page. I'm really pleased with how it all turned out, although I made some teaks according to people's views, I'm very happy with my finished product.

28/03/2011

Today completed my contents page, sticking to the colour scheme on my front cover.

21/03/2011

I couldn't blog last week because the internet broke down, however....

I have finished both my front cover and double page spread!
I finished the final touches to my front cover using Auto Colour in Image Adjustments on Adobe Photoshop CS3, so my picture looked a little brighter and stood out more.
I completed writing up the interview on my double page spread, and made adjustments to the red eyes in the picture through Adobe Photoshop CS3

14/03/2011

Today we were spoken to about our evaluation task and given a booklet with information. To help us in our evaluation task we played 'speed evaluation' just like speed dating, we all swapped papers and said one thing we would change and one thing we liked about each project. My results were very positive for my front cover, a lot of people commented on the colour scheme, the text and my layout. However I hadn't realized there was a few spelling mistakes, and almost every one said they couldn't see the 'HOT100' title, so I corrected them both, and my lecturer advised I put a price on too.

I also continued with my double page spread but not quite there yet!

07/03/11

As you can see i have changed the picture on my front cover because my other picture was too pixilated, i've also rotated the date so it's now next to the bar code instead of above it.

My contents now has a 'top stories' title and rotated the top stories

I've started my double page spread but  need to finish the interview

28/02/2011

Today i have completed my front cover, by adding another 2 titles and an issue date

I have also made a start on my contents page, but only have the titles in place

14/02/2011

Today I carried on with my magazine cover, as you can see I changed the title because I believe it was more catching.

I added some more headlines and changed some of the fonts, also added a tag line to the title and a bar code, I hope with one more session it will be finished

07/02/2011

Today I started my music magazine cover, although uncompleted I am very happy with my progress so far

24/01/11

Today I finished my music magazine proposal, however didn't bring my original images with me to my lesson, so next week I plan to include my original images and start editing my cover image.

My Music Magazine Proposal

Examples of VIBE Magazine Covers

I hi-lighted Infinite red because I think that is the title I am most likely to used because, in my opinion, it is the most attractive compared to the others - it has a ring to it!

17/01/11

Today I completed my Magazine research and my audience research, next week I plan on starting my proposal :)

Audience research

I conducted a survey for students in my group with a range of questions and a number of answers to choose from:


1) What style of music do you tend to listen to? 
R&B     Indie     ROCK     Pop     Hip-hop     Rap     Dub step     Hardcore     Other


17% listened to ROCK when Pop received 25% of votes, joint with Indie (25%), 17% of students preferred R&B, and only 8% were intrested in Dub step. 8% of the class answered Other.


2) If you buy/ were to buy, what top 2 magazines would you choose?


25% of students were more interested in Kerrang along with Q, however NMA topped it with 34% of votes, while Metal hammer and BBC only received 8 % of votes each.


3) How much would you be prepared to pay for a music magazine?
£1-2.99     £3-4.99     £5+


50% of students said they would be happy to pay from £1 up to £2.99, the other 50% of students said they would pay between £3 and £4.99. Nobody was happy to spend £5 or more (understandable in my opinion)


4) If you could buy any style of magazine, what style would you choose?
Music     'Gossip'     Real life     Garden & home     Cooking     Fashion/Hair     Other


The Music magazine took the lead with 40% of the students vote, followed by a 30% interest in 'Gossip' magazines, the other 30% was split between Real life, Fashion/Hair and Other with 10% of votes each


5) What attracts your attention to a magazine?
Colour scheme     Feature person     Content     Cover Stories     Other


45% of students agreed that the Feature person was the biggest attraction of a magazine, surprisingly only 11% thought the content of the magazine was what they found the biggest attraction. 33% of students voted the cover stories as being the biggest attraction of a magazine, the other 11% voted other.


6) In 5 words, how would you describe each genre?
R&B     Indie     Rock     Dub step


R&B was described in ways such as 'chavy,' chart music, trendy, entertaining, rap, popular, and 'catchy,' many seemed to agree that R&B was chart/ popular music. Indie music was said to be annoying, 'for rich kids,' successful, guitar based, festival music and laid back, unlike R&B there was a difference in opinion with regards to how people felt about indie music. Rock music was described using 'mosh pits,' guitars, hot guys, aggressive, heavy and hard, people seem to have a clear understanding of Rock music (some possibly bigger fans than others 'hot guys') although talking to those who are fans, apparently the non-rock-lovers have a huge misunderstanding of the genre. Lastly Dub step was described as 'alright at parties,' club music, loud bass, upbeat and a bit over used, from opinions it seems that Dub step has it's place, unlike other genres where they are deemed acceptable anywhere, Dub step is seen as club music.

Music Magazine Research

What genre of music are you going to use?
I am going to use a R&B/URBAN; this is my 'type' of music so I will have a wider range of general knowledge on this area. By using R&B/URBAN I can pass on personal opinions and it won't require me to research as much - this isn't because i'm lazy but because I like the Music I know a lot more about it, the popular artists, songs and some knowledge on the artists themselves - fashions, personal life etc. In my personal opinion this genre is a lot more interesting & there is a lot more artists involved


What media exists for the genre currently?
There are many music channels for R&B/URBAN the most common amongst them being Kiss, Smashhits and The Box; there are also websites for each of these channels: totalkiss.com smashhits.net thebox.co.uk & there are also radio stations for each of these. Each also have their own logo:

Smashhits did have their own music magazine but after 28 glorious years, the UK magazine folded in 2006. The websites can be used to research more information.

Who produces these?

EMAP launched 'TheBox' in april 1992

'KISS' started as a pirate radio station in London in 1985 the original incarnation of Kiss TV was created by Guy Wingate, who, as an original co-creator of London's Kiss 100 (in its pirate days) was brought back in to head up EMAP's fledgling TV division.

'SMASHHITS' was launched May 15th 2001. It is based on the former Smash Hits Magazine, which was owned by EMAP.

As you can see the company EMPA all play a big part in each channel. These 3 channel are 'Sister Channels' along with Channel 4, E4, Film4 More4, 4Music, Kerrang!, Magic & Q. More information can be found on wikipedia.org. 

What is typically included in the current publications?

The websites feature new & up-comming artists, new albums and singles, up-comming events such as gigs & concerts and artists personal information. When Smashhits were producing magazines they featured such things as: posters, new 'red carpet' looks, interviews, pop star's confessions, song words, mini mags, star's embarrassing stories - star's exposed and chances to win prizes. It seems to be a mix of general gossip and music. A magazine dated 4-17th of December 1996 featuring the spice girls (link) cost the consumer 90p however 7 years later a magazine dated October 29th - November 11th 2003 featuring Avril & Pink (link) was priced at £1.90, so the value of the magazine went up by £1 within 7 years. These magazines were published around every 2 weeks to keep up-to-date with the 'gossip.'

     VIBE (link) is also a popular R&B / Hip-hop magazine. It was founded by Quincy Jones but after shutting down in 2009 VIBE was purchased by the private equity investment fund InterMedia Partners and is now issued 4 times a year with double covers but has a larger online presence. On the website it states that you can subscribe to the VIBE magazine at $34.95 for 6 issues, that works out at approximately £19 - £3.20 an issue. The magazine contains information on celebrities, sounds, fashion, lifestyle, new media and urban music. 

Who is it aimed at?

                                                                

By looking at these cover images I have come to the conclusion that Smashhits is for the ages 10-15 roughly; I have concluded this because of the icons used on the cover - they are both very young and appeal to the younger persons, because of their ages and because of their style too, they both appear quite different but 'punky,' releasing 'catchy' tunes, usually related to the typical 'puppy love.' The bright colour scheme used with this magazine also appeals to the younger persons as it's vibrant and 'in-your-face.' The free gifts included also played a part in my conclusion - the free poster book & halloween mag! 

     VIBE magazine appeals to the top end of the younger generation, I would say 16-21 year olds. I have come to this conclusion by the icons used on the font cover - both young but not borderline teen/adult, also the positions and clothing they are wearing would be considered sexy. The colours used are sophisticated and not jumping out of the page at you. From my own knowledge I know that they produce songs of different meaning on different subjects. Their songs are commonly played in clubs too - a place where you wouldn't see someone of the age 10-15.

How successful are they?

Various websites state that when VIBE was at it's best it had just over 800,000 subscribers.

(link) (link) As measured by circulation, VIBE is the leading urban entertainment magazine covering urban music and lifestyle. With circulation of approximately 850,000, the magazine alone reaches more than seven million readers per month. (link)

Why do you think they are called what they are?

As smashhits is linked with the TV channel it seems very appropriate, however the magazine came before the channel. I believe it's title is very relevant to it's content - it contains the hits - what's currently happening in the music world, smashhits gave it a bit more of an edge compared to hits alone. It's very 'hip' - making a connection with it's readers as most are quite young, and very relevant to it's pop genre.

     VIBE is and R&B magazine, and a bit more sophisticated as the majority of it's readers are older than the ones that read smashhits. R&B originally stands for Rhythm and Blues, which gave a beat allowing it's lovers to feel a vibe for the music. A definition of vibe: a distinctive emotional aura experienced instinctively (link)

11/01/11

Today I continued with my music magazine research - which needs to be continued! Also conducted some audience research using the students in my class; gaining some positive but very different feedback.