AS Media Studies: G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media: Evaluation

5) How did you attract/address your audience?



I tried to make my magazine really girly but not a traditional girls magazine for example; i used a bright coloured pink for the masthead to grab you're attention, and hints of black on my front page to give it an edge . I also got the band to actually play an instrument and sing so they didn't
look to posed and so it didn't look as though i had got two people with no music ability, and so it would be more believable. I wanted it to appeal to an average teenager and make them want to be that person on that magazine. I used two girls at both seventeen years of age to over emphasise that it was a girls magazine that was aimed at girls around that age range that was interested in playing music and listening to that style of punk themed music. The clothing that they wore also reflected that for example i got one of the girls to wear a pink dress and pink tights because it was a traditional girls colour, and i got the other girl to wear a denim jacket, black fish net tights and a white dress. I did this because on one side i wanted it to represent a girly girl; but on the other side i wanted a more darker punk image, which is why i got her to wear fish net tights. I did this because i wanted to put across that all girls have a darker side, and the magazine reflects that which is why you should buy it and want to read more and find out about the band on the front cover.

6)What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
i have used a range of tools on Quark and photoshop such as:

I learnt how to use different fonts and text styles so i could make my font cover more interesting and appealing for example my Masthead. I used a font called "Twenty eight days later" it looked really effective for the punk style theme of my magazine.

On some of my pictures there was for example a light in the background which needed to cut out, so i learnt how to crop things out of my picture.

I also learnt how to make you're pictures turn different colours and have different effects for example there is water colour, sketch e.c.t. I also learnt how to rotate the pictures for effect, for example i rotated my pictures to make them look like Polaroids.

I learnt how to put on a background and then how to bring forward my pictures to they didn't blend into the background i did this by right clicking my mouse and then pressing bring forward.

I learnt how to get a text box up and make it a different colour.

I learnt how to import a picture into quark for example you click the right hand side of the mouse and then click import, go to your pictures and press open.

I used a straightening tool, i used this when i had four pictures and they were all wobbly so i used the straightening tool to straighting it up.

Here are some examples of
college magazines.

Ideas for my main product
target audience=
mainstream
16-24
female audience

sub-genre=
Punk
Dance

Title of magazine and connotations
Punk= because mostly all the things in the magazine are relating to punk for example Lilly Allen, Kelly Clarkson e.c.t
Mayhem= because there is going to be Lot's of different things in the magazine and because there is so much it's like mayhem.
Muzic= because it's going to be a music magazine and the things inside is also going to be about music.

Ideas for main cover image:
A medium close- up of three or four girls of a girl band stood together.
A medium close- up of just the main artist on the front cover.

Ideas for main splash article:
An interview with the band.
What they have got planned for the years to come.

Ideas for other possible contents:
What is going to be in next weeks issue.
Where and when there tour dates are going to be.
Top 10 this week.

5 main rules to take a front cover image
1. No cluttered backgrounds.
2. Make sure you focus on the lead singer if it is a band shot so the audience KNOW who they are.2.If it is a single artist make sure it is a medium shot - close up- 3/4 image may be good, not centered.
3. Leave room for a masthead (oh, and don't cut heads off!)
4. No high angle shots - they make bad cover images! Fine foe double page spreads but really poor on covers.
5. Animate your band - make sure they look at the camera

6 main rules of taking pictures
1. No cluttered backgrounds e.g (Against a plain background)
2. Make sure you focus on the lead singer if it is a band shot so the audience know who they are.
3. If it is a single artist make sure it is a medium shot- close up eg ( 3/4 image may be good, not centred.
4. Leave room for a masthead (Dont cut off the heads)
5. no high angle shots- they make bad cover images! fine for double page spread but really poor on covers.
6. Animate your ban- make sure that they look at the camera.

How to make something transparent
If you want to take away the white backgounr on images after importing them into Quark (if it hasnt automatically ketp transparency from photoshop), right click on the image > Modify > on both the 'Runround' and the 'Picture' tabs make sure that 'alpha channel' and 'alpha mask 1' and selected > press apply and ok.

Appendix 4- Music magazine indusrty research

The sub-genre of these magazines are all different to fit in with a range of customers, some of them are gossip magazines, information magazines, sport magazines e.c.t

There are a variety of prices for example

Take A Break= 75p

Heat= £1.65

Kerrang=£2.20

FHM=£3.90

Pregnancy&Birth=£2.70

The different magazines have different audience for example if you was to read a magazine like Take A Break or heat they would be a gossip magazine and it would tell you whats happening at the moment weather that would be about celebrities or true life stories, the main target audience for Heat is late teens early twenties. Another magazine that is totally different but is owned by the same company is Spirit&Destiny which has physics and it tells you you're horiscopes. The main target audience is females between the ages of 25-44.

Mgazines like closer have the up to date news and is mainky aimed at women, where as magzines like Bike is a total different sort of magazine where it is aimed at men. Even though the magaiznes are owned by the same company they do a variey of magazines aimed at all differnt age ranges and people and by doing that there profit goes up because there is so many different types of magazines to choose form.

Here is an example of a music magazine Kerrang owned by the company Bauer: