Question 7

Question 6

Question 5

I interviewed 2 people about my magazine in order to see their general thoughts and opinions on my magazine. I asked both of them a series of 5 questions and, as both of them were within my target audience, I thought that their feedback would give me quite a good impression of how my magazine fares. Here are my 5 questions:

1. What do you particularly like about the magazine?
2. What don't you particularly like or would like to change?
3. How much would you be willing to spend on the magazine?
4. Which gender would you say would be drawn to the magazine the most?
5. What genre of music would you say this magazine mainly focuses on?

Here is my first interview with Laura.

Here is my second interview with Nick.

Overall, I believe that my magazine was quite successful but certainly not perfect from looking at the quite basic responses that I recorded. Particularly, I believe that my audience was impressed and intrigued with my use of vibrant, exciting colours and the font I had chosen for my masthead and more important text. I think that my target audience was pleased with this as my primary research that I conducted told me that this was what they wanted, and clearly, it was. They described the colour scheme as being "vibrant" and said that it fitted with my chosen genre, which was definitely positive feedback. They did, however, comment on my choice of general text font and said that it was "boring" and "dull". Looking back on this, I do personally agree with them about the choice of serif, however I stand by the fact that it made the magazine look slightly more friendly and possibly appeal to a wider audience at the cost of it being more audience appropriate and eye-catching. It was also stated that the magazine's colour scheme was "dark" but still kept up with the tone of the magazine. This is precisely what I wanted to do with my product, as I wanted to but a dark yet exciting twist on a well known genre. I believe that I managed to do this quite well and, from audience feedback, I remain confident about this. 

My target audience's responses revealed that they would be willing to pay somewhere between £1-£2 for my magazine, which is a little less than I aimed for when I originally planned out my magazine. During my research and planning phase, I aimed for my magazine to cost a little bit more than that, as I personally believed that the full issue of it would be worth more, however given the fact that they only had a front cover, contents page and double page spread, it was to be expected that they would be aiming in the lower regions. Also, as a consumer, one is more likely to aim for a lower price as it will often result in them ultimately paying less, too. 

I aimed to attract and address my audience particularly through the colour scheme and main font as already mentioned. However, I also aimed to attract my audience through some of the lexis that I chose on my cover. I used particularly interesting and immersive vocabulary such as "Exposed" in order to engage the reader and make them feel as though they would be missing out if they didn't read the issue. This was noted in one of my interviews as addressing male audiences in particular as the word "Exposed" refers to my model on the front page and connotes her being promiscuous.
From the responses that I have recorded, I think it is quite clear that my target audience took a preferred reading of the text, themes and images that my magazine conveyed such as the model on the front cover and the text surrounding her. 

Question 4

Question 4: Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product? 

 The genre of my magazine is that of electro-house and general electronic music but with quite an aggressive and dark twist on it, thus making the sub-genre “death-electro”. My target audience was original going to be between the ages of 16-22, however after realising that 22 was quite a hard audience to address, I settled at 16-20. The early 20’s are often a difficult age to market at as they have such a range of different mind sets; some will have just finished full time education and heading into the real world, whereas others may have been working since high school thus having a totally different opinion and taste. I chose this age range as they are still growing up and wanting a bit of fun, but are able to understand the more mature elements of the magazine. I believe that my readership would be either a C1, C2 or E psycho-graphically as they would mostly be in full-time education with a few being in a lower-paid working atmosphere and a minority having a higher-paid job. I believe that the majority of my audience would be lower-middle class, working class or students because most of these class boundaries are filled with people between the ages of 16 and 20. 

Stereotypically, I would expect my audience to be quite solitary and enjoy being different from others; they would not conform to the mainstream and would not want to be seen doing things that others do. I’d expect to see them wearing quite dark clothing, borderline gothic, and predict that they themselves would not be interested in well-known fashion brands, accessories or stores. I’d expect them to aim for less sociable jobs and want jobs that are perhaps creative and allow them to do their own thing and not depend on other people, such as a graphic designer or working in a warehouse. I’d expect the majority of my readership to be male, but I’d still expect quite a strong female readership as the magazine itself isn’t particularly aimed at one gender; it is unisex. This is because the magazine will consist and rely on a few pictures of relatively promiscuous models, however they will not be a huge feature and, of course, the main part of my magazine will be the music and the acts, which do not specify a gender.

Question 3

Question 2

Question 1

Production Task: Double Page Spread Of "Drop"

Production Task: Contents Page Of "Drop"

Production Task: Front Cover Of "Drop"

Progress

I'm not doing too badly, if I'm honest. Here's a quick teaser of my double page spread and contents page:

Risk Assessment Table

Potential Danger	Potential Outcome	Actions To Avoid	Further Comments
Plug Sockets	Electrocution or something getting caught	Stay away from them or plug them
Different lighting	Perhaps wrong placement of shadows or the camera may not adapt well to certain lighting	Take multiple pictures in different lighting environments	My pictures will be taken in an area in Bowl Xtreme and the lighting often differs
People getting in the way of the photo-shoot	May not be able to take the picture or may have people in the shot	They will be asked to stay out of and totally away from the shot	As it is a public area, people may feel it fun to get in the way.
Spillages	Cause us to not be able to take the pictures in that area or perhaps make them extremely dangerous	Be prepared with different areas to photograph in and be prepared to work around problems	Due to it being a public area, someone may have spilled something there first, ruining the shot.
The public may not want us to take pictures there	The public may then not allow us to take photos in various ways due to it making the area off limits to them	Be as fast as possible whilst taking pictures but do not rush them

My TimePlan

My Time Plan (Screnshots) from JakeHawkingsASMedia

Research Into My Target Audience

Research Of My Target Audience from JakeHawkingsASMedia

Double Page Spread Analysis

The MixMag double page spread has used the colour scheme of pink, yellow, black and white. It has used these colours to connote a party atmosphere as they are vibrant and possibly convey importance due to them being used to highlight key points. It has also used black to section of specific pieces of text and topics from one another and to also help expel the more important points. This will encourage the readers to read this article as they will see the fun but also the much more in-depth and interesting side of the magazine.

The layout for the double page spread is also very effective as it is done incredibly professionally. The images and text is in line and all of it is in columns, too. The information is also kept in different boxes to condense it and seperate it from other pieces of text. The layout is also quite calm, perhaps plain, but manages to convey an atmosphere that allows them to easily access different sections of text and information whereas on a more frantic double page spread, people may feel less inclined to read the text due to it's poor placement.

The majority of the text is also relatively bland and plain, apart from the titles and numbers of the subsections. The titles of them are in thick, black text which can be seen as quite boring, but it expels itself from the white background and and colours. The numbers of the subsections are also specifically eye catching as they are bright pink and use a font that consists of three thick lines.

Contents Page Analysis

This contents page for MixMag has 3 images which are linked to stories inside, which makes them very dominant. This is to make the page look attractive by filling up space with something instead of text, whilst providing a useful amount information with the page numbers. All the written main information of a contents page is located on the left of the page whilst the font is clear and interesting but nothing to fancy; it is still readable. 

The page title is small but stands out as it is yellow on a black background compared to the colour scheme of the rest of the page. The section title on the left is in pink which separates it from the page title and subtitles.

 I think the audience is going to be a balanced amount of males and females as it has equal masculine and feminine features; none dominate the page or stop others from being seen. The images themselves are more masculine and are aimed at males as they contain alcohol, scandalously clad women and aren't very colourful, but the text and specifically the font is more feminine as it is much more colourful and quite curvy. The images represent a more pop and rock culture of nowadays and thus are more modern, gaining a higher audience.

Second Magazine Cover Analysis

The cover of MixMag is clearly aimed at a younger audience, probably more for males, but will more than likely have a formidable female readership too. The magazine itself has a 87% readership for people between the ages of 16 and 30 and these people will most likely be achievers or radicals psychographically as they might want to try and be like the people in the magazine and be different from the rest of society but are also quite young and will want to make something of themselves but not to impress other people. Because they are still trying to make something of themselves, they are most likely going to be young and still enjoying the clubbing/dance atmosphere thus meaning they will relate to the magazine and the articles inside. The readers will also probably be a C1, D or E on the Jicnar scale as you probably wouldn't get a GP or a CEO preparing for their night out clubbing by reading this magazine. An A or B also wouldn't want to read a magazine that has such a young readership either as they may feel that it undermines what they have achieved.

The main image on the front of the magazine is that of the electronic/dance act, Prodigy, with their name being anchored by the basis of the article featured, which is titled "How the Prodigy came back from hell". This anchor automatically gives us connotations of them being put through lots of troubles and thus sparks sympathy from the reader. However, when the image and the anchorage are looked at together, Prodigy are portrayed as looking cool and possibly angry, making the reader want to read the article to see how they do feel after it all and what is happening with them now. Prodigy are also a very well known act by people into the electronic music scene, so having them on the front cover will induce a much larger audience. The picture of them gives us connotations of being different but also being highly respected as shown by the pose they are holding on the front cover, particularly the main man of the act. As this magazine is read by people who want to try and stand out, this causes people to want to buy the magazine as it would help them be more like Prodigy. The front cover is heavily reliant on the colour scheme of blue and white, however sometimes uses a yellow text for text that needs specific attention. They use it on phrases such as names of bands, reviews and cleverly on the word "plus" to show how much more there is as well as what they are already giving us. A particular phrase that they use it on is "The world's biggest dance music and clubbing magazine" and it is positioned at the top of the cover giving us connotations of the magazine being incredibly comprehensive but also approved by many other people as it is supposedly the best in the world. The cover also features many offers that entice the reader such as "Every month free CD " and "Get the MixMag podcast!" that also make the reader feel like they will be getting much more for their money.

Looking back at the main image on the front cover, we see prodigy being represented as being cool, perhaps causal, but also quite slick. I think they have purposely been made out to look quite intimidating too, as it represents them as not being afraid despite having "come back from hell". I think their appearance on the front cover is quite dominant as it is quite aggressive and fearless despite them having been through many troubles recently. It portrays them as being strong and carrying on despite what has happened. The rest of the front cover shows quite an emergent ideology as it shows many ideas of this genre which is relatively new anyway and also gives many other forms of information that are new to the world nowadays and wouldn't have been heard of many years ago such as podcasts and going out clubbing. These ideas and thoughts being portrayed are also becoming more popular, thus making them support emergent ideologies even more. The only form of residual ideology shown on the cover is that of Prodigy coming "back", therefore supporting them returning as times possibly were better when they were here and making music.

Model, Props and Costumes

This will be my model. I'm using her as my model as she has long hair and I wanted it to be flicked in my front cover. She will be on the front cover and will occupy the majority of it by flicking her hair upwards or to the side. She is suitable as she has long hair, almost down to her waist, but is also very reliable and won't cause unnecessary cancellations. 

My model will be wearing clothes that are very similar to these shown below. She will be wearing the shorts as they are relatively short, appealing to male readers but they also reflect the clothing that people normally wear to music events of this genre. The dress may not be in this exact style but will be of a similar shape and length. This dress will also act in the same way that the shorts do in representation of being a female as well as of the genre. To me, the headphones are actually a very important part of the props/costumes list as they portray the genre of music very well and work well with the costume worn.

Costume/Prop	Source	Potential Cost	In Charge
Shorts	Chloe’s Wardrobe	Nothing	Chloe
Dress Top	Chloe’s Wardrobe	Nothing	Chloe
Boots/Shoes	Chloe’s Wardrobe	Nothing	Chloe
Headphones	Jake	Nothing	Jake

Magazine Cover Analysis

DJ Magazine is aimed more so at men, particularly those who are younger and are interested in the clubbing scene. These men are normally between the ages of 18 and 30 and are most likely going to be known psychographically as radicals, due to some of the language used such as "Mischief" and "Badd". The magazine itself has a 74% male readership who are most likely trying to be different from society or want to try and stand out. The magazine also contains hints of it being aimed at under-achievers too, as it talks about being mischievous. From this, we can gather that the readers of DJ Magazine will most likely amount to a C or below on the Jicnar Scale and we can see this quite effectively by looking at the main article on the cover which reads "Mid-Summer Mischief!"; most people who are A's or B's on the Jicnar Scale would be working over the summer. It also tells us that it isn't aimed at A's because they aren't very likely to be causing "mischief" over the summer.

On the front cover of the magazine, we immediately receive an image of two males who look as though they are trying to expel themselves from society, and are also posing for a photo, most likely taken in a set-up, studio-like area. This sign gives us connotations of them being different and trying to draw attention to themselves. This can sometimes be viewed as negative as the image they are portraying may not be suitable for everyone and some people may not approve of it. This, however, can help sell the magazine as it makes the reader feel as though they don't "fit in" which is what a large portion of people want in today's environment want. The image is also taken from a point below the two men so that they are looking down at the camera, making the reader think they are cool and perhaps important. The fact that this is teamed up with another image of a sticker that reads "Live the life! will suggest to the readers that by reading the magazine, they will be able to become as cool and important as the two men on the front. A very important feature that may seem very minor is a piece of text on the front of the magazine that simply reads "Plus" yet has quite a large impact on the reader. The word "Plus" not only tells us that there is yet more to come, but also makes us think that we are getting it as well as all the things that we have had so far; it makes out that we have had a lot already but are now getting even more. This is then anchored by a list of names of acts who are also associated with this type of music, such as Crazy P and Kenny Glasgow. The anchorage is cleverly finished off with the words "and more" as to say that despite how much they magazine is already giving and telling us, there is still even more that we will find out inside the magazine, thus encouraging us to buy it.

If we look again at the main image of DJ magazine, we see that the two men are dressed relatively informally, but being represented as not caring what people think about how they look. We can see this from the poses they are holding that express a sense of being quite egocentric. This then represents males who are a C on the Jicnar scale and below as possibly being indifferent about someone else's opinion on them and thus being seen as rebellious or "mischievous" if we quote the magazine. I think that this represents the people who listen to this genre of music as holding an emergent ideology as it is quite a modern idea to not care what people think about you or to try and exert yourself from the norm and was not done in older times. The majority of the front cover is also based on emergent ideology as it contains ideas of more common electronic music and also uses the oxymoron of being "bad" and how it is seen as a good thing. Some of the front cover could be seen as dominant as it is mostly about wanting to be different, but I personally thought it portrayed more of an emergent ideology.

A Few Ideas

These are just a few pictures that I like the idea of and may use to base my front cover on:

List Of Costumes And Props

Costumes:
Woman with long hair, flicking it upwards or possibly to the side. Preferably dyed, but not a necessity.
Something relatively revealing, but not too skimpy. Either that or more sleek and elegant, black possibly dress like.
Headphones around neck, preferably colourful. If not headphones, then a necklace.
Piercings on show preferably, but not a necessity.
Perhaps slightly heavily made up, black or red lipstick and heavy eye liner.
The clothes would be quite colourful in some form unless I settle on the idea of black and elegance.


The pictures below are an idea of the type of pose or style that I would want to have on my front cover; Hair askew possibly but quite an attractive model to entice the male audience.

Minor Analysis

- The colour scheme is relatively similar apart from the most important cover features, which are in a different colour to connotate importance.

- The masthead is behind the lead contributor to the band to show importance and leadership, but the masthead is also in front of the other band members to reinforce this point.

- The corner piece of the magazine that reads "Go out tonight!" is to advertise but is an interesting selling point, too.

- The main story of the magazine is in the middle of the cover to advertise the magazine itself. 

- Features a rather large advert for an upcoming event by the magazine to advertise it.

- The price is specifically kept in smaller text to not put people off as it is quite expensive.

- The main feature of the magazine has a drop shadow to emphasise it.

Photoshop Questions

1. Which tools in Photoshop did you make use of?
I specifically made use of the spot removal tool, that allowed me to remove the imperfections from my model's complexion. I also tried to make as much use of the layers too, so that I could ensure my magazine gave off the right effect. I used a drop shadow and an outer glow as well on my text that made it look much more distinguished and allowed for it to look much more appealing.
2. What were the most useful techniques you learnt?
One of the most useful is that of the text colour changer, that allowed me to make different parts of my cover more appealing and stand out specifically above other parts. One of the other most useful techniques was the magnetic lasso tool, that allowed me to edit parts of my magazine together to give different effects.
3. What problems did you face?
A main problem I faced was with the main picture; it was pointed out to me that it was not a mid-shot but was thankfully altered and cropped, making it usable again. Another problem that I encountered was the problem of having some layers in wrong positions, but fixed this by making them easily maneuverable in the side-bar.
4. Is there anything you would like to do with Photoshop?
I would like to attempt more of the tools in Photoshop; none specifically but I would like to become more adept at using it. I would like to do this to ensure that I can give future projects the edge and allow for them to be as creative and different as possible, and to avoid them just being quite plain and simple.

My Preliminary Magazine!

Iya :)

Schedule!

Tuesday: 

1. Front cover draft

Wednesday:

1. Photography

2.Photoshop

Thursday:

1. Create using InDesign

Friday:

1. Evaluate 

Connotations

The connotations I want to portray in my magazine are:
- Fun
- Interesting
- Informative
- Entertaining
- Easy To Understand
- Engaging

I'm going to communicate these by ensuring I use more interesting colours and images, to brighten the mood slightly. I want to try and use informative language and vocabulary in order to engage the readers with the topics in the magazine, however, I don't want to use over-the-top language because I want to make my magazine as easy to understand as possible. I will communicate the idea of it being entertaining by having a few different features on the double page spread, for example, I will be using both a story about the college, and some sort of tips to help out the readers.
-:

Audience Profile

Worcester College Life 

Worcester College Life readers agree that:

- The magazine caters for students who are trying their hardest for their A Levels and are putting in maximum effort.

- They are much more interested in being independent than still having to leech off their parent/guardians.

- They would like to achieve anything B's at minimum in their A levels.

- They do not believe themselves to be applicable to the stereotypical ideology of "Teens".

Our audience:

- Our audience are mostly students in Worcester Sixth Form College and believe themselves to be hard working.

- Our readers are mostly in the Achievers or Aspirers categories and are mostly in the age range of 16 and 19.

- Most of our readers believe in Dominant or Emergent ideologies.

Readership: 1200

Target Market: DE and mostly within the age range of 16-19
Male: 32%

Female: 68%

Employed: 41%

Unemployed: 59%

The readers of WCL follow much more Emergent and Dominant ideologies: They either want to try and fit in with the crowd and give off an acceptable impression to their peers, or they want to try and stand out, doing, wearing or acting different to others in the college. They would prefer to have a weekend job with lower pay than have a job after or before college that pays slightly more. They agree that they want to try and look different day by day as they want to make a good impression, but also believe that, when they are in for much less time, it's acceptable to dress much more casually.

Student Magazine Analysis

College Lifestyle: 

The male on the front of the magazine represent someone who perhaps has an interest in or goes to the college. His clothes give connotations of someone who if quite interested in fashion and perhaps is quite modern and up to date. He looks relatively happy and he takes up a lot of the front cover, showing his importance. This sign is then anchored by the caption "Dancehall's Bright Future" showing that he is perhaps quite intelligent and is set for a good future. This also relates to the fact that he is holding books, telling us he is most likely a student.

If we continue and look at the actually writing itself, we see that is is mostly white, grey and green standing out on a black and grey background. The writing that is in green immediately draws our attention and is quite strategically used in the masthead and the sub-headings to draw attention to things that students are interested in, such as "Money" and "Friday".

The New York Times College Issue:

The front cover is one big collage of things to do with students, such as ripped paper, post-it notes and many different images. There are many different things happening on the front cover too, showing just how stressful a students life in college can be and the fact that this is used in cooperation with their being many colours used, really emphasizes the stress. I think that the black font for "The College Issue" makes it look quite officially done and makes it look like it could be student work, too, in order to make it more applicable to the readers.

Hey There!

So, this is my first blog entry. So I'll try and make a good first impression. I'm into quite an array of bits and bobs, to be honest. I'm mostly into horror films, especially Paranormal Activity, The Cabin In The Woods and, well, any film that scares me half to death. I'm into a lot of different music, from Pendulum, Nero and Skrillex to Lady GaGa and Ke$ha to Korn and Celldweller. I enjoy settling down after a long college day with a couple of episodes of Friends, because let's be honest, who doesn't love Friends? That's about it for my first blog for now, I hope you enjoy my coursework!