Improvements Since The Preliminary Task

I am very happy with my overall skill development since the preliminary task. I've learnt allot with composing and putting together photography, as this was one thing I had had a lot of trouble with before. I learnt about the importance of mise-en-scene and eye contact especially.

Preliminary Photography

Final Secondary Photography

 Another thing I have improved on is my use of space and layout. In my preliminary task, my front cover ended up looking very empty, however I have developed this and used the space better now, by not being afraid to use large fonts, as this actually looks allot better. Through learning how to use InDesign, I used the program frequently to help improve this.

As well as many aspects of the actual product I improved on, I also improved allot in my planning. Previously I wasn't sure what the coverlines on the front cover were going to say, and this left it looking empty. However, with the final product, I made sure to plan what I was going to put on the coverlines, before I had even started putting the page together. I also made sure to fully take on board the market research I had done, as this really helped to decide what should be featured in the magazine, and how the readers should be addressed. This was a big improvement on the Preliminary task, as I hadn't done any market research before.

What kind of media institution might distribute the magazine?

After researching both Bauer Media Group and Time Inc UK (two leading publishers in the UK) I have decided that Time Inc UK would be the best media group to publish my magazine. This is because they currently only feature music magazines that concentrate in only indie and alternative rock genres. My magazine would appeal to an audience that they don't currently cater for - Rock and metal fans. Although my target readership age is slightly similar to NME's readership, I believe that my magazine would attract slightly younger and also people of a different social group to NME's readers.

Bauer Media Group currently already have a similar magazine to the one I have created: KERRANG! They also have a similar target audience to mine which is why it would not be good to be produced by Bauer Media Group. However, if Time Inc. UK produced my magazine, they could gain a readership of up to 290,000 (Kerrangs current readership is 293,00)

Time Inc. UK Research

Time Inc. UK publishes over 60 ionic brands, ranging from fashion magazines like Look and interior design magazines like Ideal Home, to sports magazines like Cycling Weekly.

Out of the 60+ brands they publish, there are only two music magazines. 

Below is a bit about their readerships.

NME

Circulation : 40,948

Readership : 388,000

Mean Age: 23

Predominantly Male readership

Genres Featured : Generally alternative, indie, rock 

Uncut

Predominantly older, male audience
Genres Featured: Rock, Classic Indie, Americana

Bauer Media Research

Bauer Media 

Bauer Media is a media group based in Europe which produces a large number of magazines, radio stations and digital TV channels. In the UK, Bauer Media produces 53 Magazines, 44 Stations, 49 Digital Brands and 7 Digital TV Channels. They produce a large variety of magazines, ranging from Practical Fishkeeping and Garden News, to Closer and Heat.



Below is the Music Magazines they produce with their readership details.

KERRANG!

Q

Mojo

How does my magazine represent particular social groups?

 My main artist in my magazine, represents young, alternative adults. She represents a large amount of my intended audience as she is a young female. Although she is slightly older than the very youngest end of my target audience (15-17) she is presented as a strong female figure that the younger audience may aspire to be.

She also represents females as being strong and independent and as someone to look up to as there are little well known female artists in the metal genre. She is also modestly dressed, showing that you don't need to be overly sexual to be a successful woman. Along with this she also presents uniqueness and extreme styles in a positive way, through the friendliness of how she appears to sound in the interview. 

The dark colours shown in the clothing, hair and make-up of my artist is very stereotypical of females in metal music. Corsets and facial piercings are also associated with metal music, meaning that the audience can clearly link the image of the artist with the music she represents.

Another way that teenagers and young adults are represented in my magazine is through use of slang and an informal mode of address. The casual use of swearing and slang is used frequently among teenagers and young adults so I have replicated this in my magazine, meaning my target audience can connect with my magazine easier. 

What I have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product - Manga Studio Debut 4

Although I didn't directly use this program in the construction of my magazine, I used it quite a lot to edit fonts and create artwork for one of my secondary artists - Haunted Parade. With this program, I also used a bamboo drawing tablet. I learnt a lot about using layers through the use of this program, which in turn helped in Photoshop. Below is a sped up video of the colouring process.

What I have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product - Hardware

For the photography of my magazine I used a Canon EOS 1100D. As I have an interest in photography, I already knew the basics on how I could use the camera, however throughout constructing my magazine, I have improved greatly. 

For my main photography, i made use of the natural outside light to take high quality photos.

However, for my secondary photography, I found it difficult to get the right lighting, as I wanted to take these photos indoors. This lead to the photos turning out quite yellow and grainy.

I then decided to to do a re-shoot of my secondary artist, with an external flash - Canon Speedlite 430EX.

This allowed me to direct the flash away from the model, creating soft shadows and natural lighting. This, compared with the standard direct flash found on the camera itself, gave a much more natural and high quality looking image.

External Flash turned away 

With Direct Flash

What I have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product - Adobe Indesign

Adobe indesign was a completely new program to me, so at first it was slightly difficult getting used to all the tools and features. After a while though I got used to it as it is easy and simple to use to create what I wanted. Although a lot of the tools are similar to what I am used to in photoshop, there are lots of extra features that made it easier create the magazine. Below is a video of some of the tools that I used.

What I have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product - Photoshop

Throughout the process of producing my magazine, I have developed and built on the skills I had learnt in using Photoshop in my preliminary task. Below I have made a video about the magic wand tool which I used and developed on to make make clean edged images with transparent backgrounds. 

I also used Photoshop to edit my photography, and I learnt quite alot about ways to make the photography better. In particular I learnt about the 'Reduce Noise' filter, which I found really useful when editing my concert photography, as they were taken with a lower quality camera in difficult conditions.

Analysis of Feature Article and How it appeals to the target audience

Analysis of Contents Page and How it appeals to the target audience

Analysis of Front Cover and How it appeals to the target audience

Target Audience

'Summary Of Target Audience

• Aimed at fans of Rock, Alternative and Metal genres

• Equally male to female ratio

• Aimed at more 'edgy' and 'unique' personalities.

• Mostly explorer psycho graphic, however seek security within the more unique community 

• Target age range of 14-25

• ABC1 demographic

• A large percentage of the target audience like to play music or are looking to take up playing an instrument  ' 

Above is what I had originally planned my target audience to be like, and after creating my magazine, I believe that all aspects of my magazine would attract and appeal to this target audience. However, this specific issue of my magazine may appeal more to females, as there are more female artists featured.

When making sure that my product would attract the right audience, I used the market research I had collected, as most of the people I surveyed were part of my target audience.

In particular, when I asked what they would want to see in a music magazine, I received this response. 

 Along with the usual 'freebies' and 'announcements' I found that my target audience also wanted 'security' and 'community' from their magazine. Because of this I made sure that my magazine had an informal, friendly mode of address that would appeal to the younger target audience.

Feature Article Evaluation

Like my front cover, I have compared my feature article with a KERRANG! feature article. The young target audience of KERRANG! is similar to the audience of my magazine meaning they both feature a question and answer styled article. This meant that they were good articles to compare.

Contents Page Evaluation

Here I have compared my contents page with Metal Hammer's contents page to again show how I have used conventions of real magazine contents pages in my own magazine. Metal Hammer has a slightly older and different target audience to my magazine, but it is very similar.

As said before on my front cover comparison, I had chosen to change the colour scheme of my house style. On the contents page, there is less black however the light blue links really well with the blue lights in the photo of 'The Hallowed'.

Front Cover Evaluation

Above I have compared my front cover with a KERRANG! front cover, to show how I have used conventions of magazine front covers that are used in real life products. KERRANG! has a similar aesthetic and target audience to my magazine, which is why I chose to compare them. 

Overall I am quite happy with how my front cover turned out. I chose to change the colour scheme I was going to originally use from red to this light blue, as I felt that the red colour did not suit an image with a mostly black background. I then made sure to maintain this new colour scheme throughout my house style.

Final Feature Article

Feature Article Development

Final Contents Page

Contents Page Development

Final Front Cover

Front Cover Development Process