AS Media Studies

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Front Cover: For my front cover one of the many conventions that I had noticed on real media products is that front covers on magazines are ‘eye catching’ this is done by using bright colours to attract the buyers eye, so for my completed magazine front cover I had decided to use Red, yellow and blue to give and head turning response. Apart from using the conventions that I have seen in the media products I decided to challenge them, and try something different with my main image. What I had done, was to try and involve the audience as much as possible making them feel a part of the new magazine, where my main image was a picture of ‘Gunna dee’ pointing towards you the audience with the headline ‘Gunna dee aims for you’ Another convention I decided to follow was using a ‘puff’ to try and advertise prices that could be won and make them stand out to buyers, this was an important convention to follow out because throughout my questionnaire this was a popular thing to include into a magazine to increase buyers

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Double page Spread For my double page spread one of the many conventions that I decided to follow was the use of the main image on one side of the a3 piece, for my main image was a enlarged photo of one of the member of the music group ‘GBT’ . This was a good convention to follow as for the buyers of the magazine as it was a clear and easy photo to identify and have a good look at the new music groups clothing line. One the other hand there was one aspect with the main image that I decided to challenge, this was to include three small images linked to the bottom of the main to give the buyers I wider range of what other clothes ‘Gb Wear’ included Another convention of the media products I decided to follow was the use of colour e.g. at the bottom of my completed double page spread, there was information on how you could get hold of the clothes being advertised by the music group. The colour used within this information was yellow and was used to catch the buyers eye.

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Contents page For my contents page I decided to follow the conventions of media products, this was on the idea of the way I decided to arrange my images on the page, in a scrap book form. This was also done to try and give my magazine an informal. Another was the use of colour were I used yellow on the main title of contents, this again was to stand out and attract the readers eye. On the other hand I wanted to challenge other media products, this is were on many magazines I have noticed that on images there are many cover lines crammed over the whole page with hardly any view on images at all, my views on that are not strong so I decided to change this and make my images more clear to see.

4. How does your media product represent particular social groups? The age group my magazine is trying to appeal to is aged between 19-25, this is because most of the feedback I received from my questionnaire was of this age group. So therefore I felt my magazine would have more of a means to target a specific social group targeting what they really want. From looking at my front cover of my magazine the colours I have used and the main image of a young male artist, should immediately show and appeal to the 19-25 age group. The artists and music groups within my music magazine are all between this age group, so again should appeal to buyers who would like to relate to what interviews are saying ect. On the social groups of Gender, through out my magazine there were no female artists but this was done mainly on the statistics of my questionnaire, nevertheless females were not completely ruled out as I still tried to target them with the appeal of images of young males, competitions to concerts ect. On the other hand for males, I tried to target them with being persuaded to follow a ‘cool’ look and buying such merchandise as ‘GB Wear’

5. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? The media institutions that would more likely to distribute my music magazine are Newsagents and supermarkets. This could be on the decision on how often issues would be put out and how popular the magazine will become, in other words if it would sell. On the other hand if this music magazine would to be sold online, it may find more of an audience as other website could fuse and advertise as we advertise them for e.g. the new clothing line for the music group ‘GBT’ on there website www.gbwear.co.uk they could promote ‘Vinyl’ as a double page spread was dedicated to them.

6. Who would be the audience for your media product? The audience for my music magazine would tend to be both male and female but would slightly more appeal to males, for both of these genders the age group would be the same which is around 19-25 and would appeal to a minority of 13-18. The audience is a important part of deciding how much to charge for ‘Vinyl’ and from doing the questionnaire, people aged between 19-25 felt that between £2-3 would be a fair price. And on the law that age group are enabled to work and afford that price. But for instance if my magazine’s audience were mainly from 13-18 the price range would be fair to be lowered. When creating my music magazine ethnicity was not a major factor as I believe that just because of your ethnicity it doesn't mean you are pinned to certain music genres, that is why in ‘Vinyl’ there are images of both a black male and a white male.

7. How did you attract/address your audience? Selling line: by using the text ‘uk’s most anticipated Rnb magazine, this would give the buyers the thought that this was a well established magazine, and be more inclined to believing when the font is in a serif form. also the blue font surrounded by a red box stands out. Puff: by using this puff, I was trying to grab the attention of buyers and let them know that if they purchase they are getting something exclusive. This can be shown as a black circle is on top of a grey background. Main Image: When choosing the right image for my front cover I decided to use the one as shown, basically to directly address the audience by making them feel as involved as possible. E.g. ‘Gunna Dee’ is aiming for his fans and pointing at them. Logo: when designing my music magazine logo, I decided to fuse the name of the magazine within it. I did this by creating I circle inside a black square indicating a vinyl in its case. Also the use of the dog foot print was to show the buyers that it’s a new magazine and are the underdogs' coming up. Cover lines: the use of the cover lines being in black were to make the red background really stand out, and turn peoples heads when walking by. Secondary image: The use of this secondary image was to let the buyers know what the new ‘GB wear’ clothing line insisted of, also can be seen as a teaser.

8. How did you attract/address your audience? Main image: On my double page spread, one side has been dedicated to the music group ‘GBT’ so the main image a ‘Gb wear’ jumper make it clear to all the readers of what they actually look like. Also at the bottom there are three smaller pictures showing more clothing examples. This Is so buyers of the magazine get a full insight of what's out there. Text: On this double page spread I deliberately chose to change the text colour from black and white on every paragraph, stand out to readers and also challenge to conventions of a media product, by trying something new. Logo: I entered a small ‘Vinyl’ logo to familiarise readers of the magazine and establish the logo its self as the magazine is new.

9. How did you attract/address your audience? Contents title: On my contents page I decided to follow the convention of other media products and have a large contents title also in a bright colour on a dull background to stand out. E.g. on my magazine the yellow on the grey are used to stand out. Content images: for my images I wanted to show that my music magazine can be looked at in an informal way, so again I followed the conventions of media products and used a scrapbook form. E.g. slapping images on to look unprofessional. Large page Numbers: The use of large numbers were to make it clear to readers what page covers what information, also I felt it would be a good look to follow convention from other media products.

10. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Photo shoot studio: Whilst thinking of all the images that will be needed for my music magazine, i had to go into a school photo shoot studio, for the first time and tackle and go around how to shoot a decent enough image. when in the studio I had to learn how to position all the lighting to get the effect needed for each shot e.g. turning the camera settings to tungsten so that the background stayed white and not turn to orange because of the lighting. I also had to position the lights so that close up shot of faces were clear enough to see. I found that this task was a challenge and I am glad to have learned and got passed it. Good Quality Bad Quality

11. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Photoshop Elements 5.0 When using Photoshop, to develop my music magazine I used a skills ive learnt previously to help me do this, for e.g. for my front cover the main image had to be ‘flipped horizontally’ so that the cover lines could fit in, also when keeping the colours the same I used the ‘eye dropper tool’ this was a major part of keeping my magazine theme the same. when creating the headline ‘Gunna Dee aims for you’ I used the ‘emboss’ tool to make it stand out and attract peoples eye.

12. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Looking back at my preliminary task I feel I have a greater sense of knowledge on how to create a magazine with the audience in mind and how to get them to see it and purchase it. This can be shown from looking at my preliminary task, and the layout and colours used. Even down to what was and not included e.g. my front page for my preliminary didn’t even have a selling line, so already there's nothing to entice the audience. In the case of images I have learned how to arrange the accordingly to how I want to represent something e.g. on contents' a scrapbook theme. The difference can be seen as my preliminary task only has basic images, also web photos which didn’t come out in good quality when enlarging. using my questionnaire feedback, it is clear that my preliminary task doesn't show any aims towards gender ect, or anything to what the audience would want. But for my completed magazine I have carefully used the feedback to widen my audience to as much as possible e.g. the majority of people who done the questionnaire felt that they would be persuaded to buy my magazine if there was prizes involved.