AS Media Studies Foundation Portfolio

After analysing magazines such as Q and Rolling Stones which appear to study mostly rock and sometimes acoustic artists, I then chosen to design my magazine around an a acoustic band. Trough out my magazine I have used many conventions showing on my justifications I have used…

Mastheads, Corner grabbers, barcode, slogan, by-lines, images, range of fonts, lures, competitions, media platforms, date, issue number, price, columns, and features.

I used all of these conventions so that my product would look like a professional media product making it look realistic.

I used many conventions on my cover page just like Q and NME did.

Barcode, price, issue number.

Coverline – main feature of the issue

Features

Masthead

Main image

Puff and corner grabber

Alliteration

Coverline

Coverline – main feature of the issue

Puff

Masthead

Cover lines

Features

Straplines

On my front cover I used different conventions from both Q and NME’s magazines to make mine as professional looking as possible.

My Front Cover

Main Cover Line Shows main feature, Stands out with bright colour use, grabs attention, and large texts.

Cover Line

Corner Grabber Attracts reader’s attention to the free giveaways.

Main FeatureInterview with the band

MastheadStands out, starts in left third so that its Easier seen on magazine stands.

Slogan

LureChance to win shows professional appearance.

Main ImageCaptures reader’s attention, close up, and takes up all the front cover.

Issue Number and PriceAdding to professional appearance.

Barcode Follows conventions and gives magazine a professional appearance.

DateMedia Platforms Magazine buyers can subscribe to the website.

Index, cover

stories

Page Guide, attracts reader with use of colour

Subscriptions

Band Index, page numbers to show the readers where to look for

the article.

Masthead Date

Heading of section

Main Cover line

My Contents PageMastheadKeeping a house style with position same as cover.

SloganConvention, alteration.

Thumbnail Front cover.

Heading of section Right third shows the features, easily read and not cluttered.

LureFront cover competition

Page NumberPUFF

Main Image Band which feature on front cover.

Page numbersPeople can find the article they

want to.

Main Image

Main Image

Blurb about the bands latest updates

Page Numbers Images

News Cover line

Drops Caps

Captions

My Double Page Spread

Main ImageMembers of the band playing at one of their gigs.

Title Clear, big font, rough writing cause the band is “The Rush”.

Register Conversational tone.

Small introduction stating what the article is about

By line Writer of the interview.

Three Columns Separates texts, easier to follow interview and looks more professional.

Page NumbersPull QuoteAttracts the reader’s attention, breaks up the interview and also make the reader want to find the quote within the interview.

Images Let the reader’s imagine the band. Photos of each member.

BlurbSmall Blurb about band allows readers to follow interview easily.

Subscribe and image captions

Though my final cover page you can see that I have used many codes and conventions. I have successfully completed my magazine cover and am happy with its final outcome.

I have chosen to capture the lead female singer of the band as my cover page as it is the main image that first captures the reader’s attention, I used a close up shot of the artist to make reader’s feel close to her.

I clothed my model pacifically in a hooded jacket whilst she grabs it to show she's perhaps a bit insure relating with the audience.

Finished Product • I am happy with my final outcome of my magazine. I feel like I have challenged many forms

and conventions.• In my magazine I have kept the mastheads on both the front cover starting at the left third in

a pose to just putting it in the middle, by putting my front cover masthead and the left third this means if it was on a magazine stand in a shop the audience can see the name of it as it would be on show. I put the barcode down on the bottom third of the page so that the audience can easily see it, also with my slogan “Music Matters” I have a alliteration.

• My contents page again with the same house style masthead but different font starts at the left third. I also put in a thumbnail view of my front cover in the left third and placed my features clearly also down the left third I used a range of different images which were chosen from my target audience.

• My double page spread also challenges the conventions as I have used three columns like a professional magazine, and have included pull quotes.

• My media product shows teenagers as out going, fun young adults and also perhaps with mature music taste and those with a laded back nature.

Representation

Images like these show the representation of the teenage social group who are outgoing and those that are interested in music.

For my media product my target audience ranged form ages 19-25, I therefore included bands and artists within that age range which I thought would appeal to this audience.

Coldplay where one of the bands I included in my magazine as a competition to win tickets to their show.

Ed sheeran was an artist in which inspired my decision to create this genre of magazine as he is fun and quirky yet is very serious about his music.

Lana Del Ray was also used in my magazine product, as her musical interests and style is again serious yet from this picture we can see she's “bad” too.

Magazines such as “Kerrang”and Q are distributed by Bauer Media a company in which functions in 15 countries worldwide, Bauer also had other media outlets such as having shares in radio and television selling on average 38million copies each week.

I feel that Bauer Media would distribute my media product as it was Q in which was my biggest influence when designing the magazine therefore showing resemblances.

Emap is another media outlet which produce products such as music magazines it is owned by APAX and Guardian media Group Emap is as British based company. It was founded in 1947 and still is producing media products and is based in London.

My Audience• The audience for my media product is young adults and teenagers ranging from

18- 25 year olds it is also for both genders males and females.

• The language in my double page spread is laid back and very conversational and somehow witty but yet formal when asked serious questions, this appealing to the target audience as they want to know about the bands characters as well as the music. The magazine also uses social networks site such as facebook and twitter in which this age group can relate to, and slang language “toosie rolls”.

• I tried to use the main colours of white red and blacks, blues and orange throughout the magazine as this is what the target audience wanted in their magazine.

Ideal Reader Questionnaire …………………………………………………………………………….Which genre of music are you most interested in?…………………………………………………………………………….

What is your name? ……………………………………………………………………….What age are you? ………………………………………………………………………..What car do you drive if any? …………………………………………………………………………..What is your favourite type of food to eat? …………………………………………………………………………… What’s your favourite fast food restaurant? …………………………………………………………………………...What’s your favourite type of drink?(non alcoholic) ……………………………………………………………………………… Are you interested in any sporting activities?( State if you play) …………………………………………………………………………….What football team do you support (if any)?……………………………………………………………………………Where is your favourite place to go on holidays?……………………………………………………………………………What accommodation do you live in? Where would you like to live when you’re older?…………………………………………………………………………….

Here are some questions I asked in my ideal reader questionnaire.

This is a print screen of my ideal reader profile.

• In my questionnaire in which I handed out to this age group I asked them what genre of music did they like the most acoustic was the top answer, therefore I knew to create my band around an acoustic genre.

• These answers from my questionnaire helped me to make the magazine in the way in which my target audience wanted it to be allowing the magazine to be for the people by the people. It helped me come up with lots of ideas knowing that this was the genre in which they wanted my magazine to be focused on.

• Through the use of Lures like “Win Ten Pairs Of Tickets To Coldplay” I will be attracting my audience to buy the magazine especially of those whom are Coldplay fans.

• By including informal language it will attract the target audience more as they feel they can relate better to the magazine and it makes them want to read more about it. Also the use of different fonts attracts the readers attention more to the magazine as they will not be bored.

• My models also were chosen specifically for this magazine because of their age again allowing the target audience to relate to them, their costumes where very carefully chosen as I didn’t want them to look down on the audience again showing through the camera shots used.

My Band Members

Name:BarryAge: 25 Instrument: Lead Guitar/ vocalist

Name: Laura Age:23 Instrument: Lead Vocalist

Name: RyanAge: 24Instrument: Guitar/ Vocalist

• From constructing this product I have learnt, many new websites which helped me construct my work to my full potential. In particular I learnt how to use Prezi which I found difficult at the start to use.

• I also learned how to use Photoshop and watched tutorials of it on youtube so that I could us it to the best of my ability, however I thought that it was very frustrating but I in the end got the task completed through the system.

My Work Process

• Throughout my work on Photoshop I used many different tools which included:

• Magic Wand, spot healing brush, text tool, creating different layers, zoom, filter and cropping were just some of many.

• All these tools helped me design my final products: • Front cover• Double page Spread (dps)• Contents Page

My Pb Works • Throughout my main task I stored my work online on are blogs on

mypbworks.com• I thought the blog at the start was hard to upload my work to but once I

had did it a few times I then could do it easily.• Here is a screen shot of my pb works blog:

• In order to complete my task I used many different work spaces such as:

• Photoshop• Microsoft word• Excel• Publisher• And for my pictures my digital camera.

How I completed my work

How much would you be willing to pay for this magazine?

25%

25%

35%

15%

£1.99

£2.50

£3.00

£3.50+

On question four I asked “How much would you be willing to pay for this magazine?” 35% saying that they would pay £3.00 for this magazine, closely followed by £2.50 and £1.99 with only ten percent less. However only 15% said that they would pay more than £.3.50 therefore the chosen price on which I have chosen to make my magazine is £3.00.

Here is an example of one of the questions I asked and my answer which I produced in excel.

This was another question in which I asked my audience. “What attracts you to buy a music magazine?” and front the graph you can see the top answer was front cover.

This is my preliminary task as you can see it is very basic, and I can notice the difference in the images in which I have taken as in my main task they look much more professional.

From this I can see the mistakes in which I made very clearly as it doesn’t really challenge many conventions, however I have included a barcode, a puff and a price.

• Looking back on my preliminary task I feel that I have improved as I did not know how to work photoshop, prezzi or animoto before and now I do.

• I feel that my editing has improved too as now I have watch tutorials and understand how to do it better, also I have experimented more with blogging sites allowing me to navigate through them better.

• Also I can now save things as Jpeg or PDF files which I couldn’t do during my preliminary task.

• I also communicated with the class if I had any problems by leaving comments on their blog or their Facebook page, for example when I needed audience feedback on my pictures for the task I wrote to them on their blogs whilst I was giving my feedback to them.

• From this task I feel that my media knowledge has improved as I learned how to analyse a magazine thoroughly, different magazine designs and also different methods of feedback.

THE FINAL PRODUCT