Forms and Conventions

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. Title: The title 'Zephyr' comes form the Greek god for the west wind. However it has been used to title bands, songs, cars, motorbikes, sweets and a load of other things. My audience will however think of 'The Zephyr Song' by Red Hot Chili Peppers' and possibly the car and motorbike. The word is regarded as cool and that is the main reason i chose it.

2. Mise-en-scene: The images in my magazine challenges the codes and conventions of similar magazines because they are all location shots. In many music magazines the images, especially on the cover, are taken against a white background. However they are relevant to the magazine because of the way that they portray the person in them and the intended look of the articles.

3. Costumes & Props: The clothes my model wears are very similar to the target audience. He wears jeans and a hoody which identifies him as young. They are conventional because they portray him in a way that is accepted by the masses and loosely fits in with the stereotype of today's youth. There are no props because I felt them to be unnecessary. This goes against the convention of magazines with a similar music focus because the models often have a guitar or some other prop.


4. People in the photos: The person in my photos has an expression-less face and he is looking away from the camera. This is used often in magazines to give the model depth. His pose and clothes are very normal. This is unconventional for the type of music magazine this is because in ones containing similar music (like Kerrang) the artists are usually in rock clothing and/or in some kind of rock pose. This would usually lead the person to look extreme or obscure in appearance.

5. Masthead font and placement: To make the masthead of my magazine I learnt a  photoshop technique to smash text, this follows some codes and conventions, for example it has a similar effect to that created by 'Kerrang!' magazine.

I also made the text appear metallic to follow the conventions created by tech magazines and websites like Gizmodo.

The combination of these two however challenges the conventions because the smooth, metallic feel of Gizmodo is the opposite of the rebellious and dirty Kerrang.

The masthead follows the conventions set by a large of majority of magazines and is situated at the very top of the page in the centre. This is so that anyone glancing across a magazine rack will be able to see the magazine and what it is very easily.

6. Written content: type of language, length, form: The language in mt magazine is all informal to mirror the relaxed nature of my target audience. However there is quite a lot of it in my double page spread and in the descriptions on my contents page. This is because my audience will want to read the content and be true fans of the music, not just people in a passing trend. My audience will be more likely to prefer reading the article than lots of pictures. My audience will be hungry for information.

7. Music genre: The genre of music that would be featured in my magazine would be modern indie and modern rock. Indie bands like Vampire Weekend, Band of Horses and rock bands like Muse and Wolfmother. The clothes that my model wears are typical of the clothes that someone who listens to this type of music will wear.

8. Contents page: The contents page is very clean and direct. This corresponds with the house style of the magazine in it's clear-cut approach and simple style. It is not in your face or too exciting but does the job well. It follows the codes and conventions set by many other magazines in the 'Regulars' and 'Features' sections. The layout of the contents page is very similar to the one found in Classic Rock magazine. The music styles may be fairly different, the attitude of the audience will be similar in the preference of content over style.

9. Double page spread: My double page spread has a layout that is used in  large number of articles of all types of magazine. It also follows many of the codes and conventions of magazine articles, for instance the drop-cap, pull-quote, kicker, columns and guttering. These combined make the double pages spread seem professional and real.


10. House Style: Overall, the house style of the magazine is made up of all the above. The style is different from magazines like Kerrang that cover similar genres of music because of it's more sophisticated approach to its coverage. The way it is set out and the graphic style add to this.

Target Audience

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The above image is representative of my target audience. They are between the ages of 15 and 25, 79% of them are male, they are likely to live with their parents or with friends if they are at university or college, they will be mostly single or with a partner (not married) and they will have a background that falls into the B, C1, C2 brackets.

The psychographic profile of my target audience will mostly be aspirers because a large number of my audience will be at university or college aspiring to get a well paid job at the end of it so that they can have a luxury lifestyle.

They will like music like the bands Muse, Vampire Weekend, Band of Horses and Wolfmother. So their music taste is very much a mix of the genres Indie and Rock. The music will be fairly recent and almost all of it will be from the last 10 years. My target audience will like a wide variety of films with their favorites being classics and ones that will make them think like The Shawshank Redemption and Donnie Darko. However they will also like films aimed at their age group and comedies like Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The world.

My target audience will do a lot of shopping online from websites such as Amazon.com. This would be mostly for their tech. They will buy music from iTunes and similar services on a regular basis. They will get a lot of their clothes and such from shops like next, Fat Face and Burtons.

My audience will buy the magazine for the exclusive articles abut their favourite bands and new ones they are new to. They will also read it for reviews of new gadgets and games.

The sorts of products that advertise in my magazine would be video games, websites, live events, albums, mobile phones, media players, televisions as well as maybe cars and online clothes shops. I feel that these are the sorts of products that my target audience are likely to purchase and be able to afford due to their background.

Addressing My Audience

How did you attract/address your audience?

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The unique selling point of my magazine is that it contains music and technological content. This will help it to appeal to its audience. During the construction of my magazine I was constantly asking friends who belong to the target audience, what they thought of the magazine, its style and its content. I then tweaked the style and content of the magazine in accordance to the feedback that I received.

The adverts that I would have in my magazine would consist of mostly albums, live events and other consumer music-related products. There would also be adverts for video games, media players, mobile phones. My target audience will be able to buy the latest albums from iTunes, latest gadgets and have plenty of money (and spare time) for video games. So my audience are very much consumers, and the adverts will reflect this.

Representation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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I chose the image of (Muse frontman) Matt Bellamy to establish how I represented the social group shown in my magazine. I chose this image because the poses of the images are very similar and I was after a similar effect when the image was taken. The lighting in both of the images is similar and neither are looking at the camera, with my shot I was aiming to make the subject look deep in thought and cool at the same time. This represents the social group as intelligent and responsible. In the interview i tried to make the subject sound like many of the audience or how the audience want to be perceived. To achieve this I tried to portray the subject in the post positive way I could. Unlike the image of Matt, my image has a much lighter, more natural backdrop which I feel makes the subject appear more genuine and more like a real person. In mainstream media people like him will be presented outside, only while vandalizing or committing similar illegal activities. I tried to make my subject appear peaceful and thoughtful in opposition of this stereotype.

In the interview on the double page spread my interviewee speaks of experiences that many of the audience will relate to, re-enforcing the bond and trust he has with the audience. He also used words like 'result!' and laughs during the interview which gives him a very laid back attitude and portrays his social group as free and relaxed.

I don't feel that I represented race, gender or class in any way specifically, even though he is definitely not working class from his clothes, hair etc.

Institutions

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?


Reed Business would distribute and publish my media product for many reasons. They are a large company with many magazine titles under their belt . Some of these are computers and technology based (e.g. Computer Weekly, Electronics Weekly and New Scientist), however there are none that appeal to a younger audience, so to fill this gap in the market my magazine would get some of the tech news from the other magazines with a focus on a younger audience to buy their products and expand their appeal. They also have no music-related media products that I can see so this would be a new direction to bring in a larger audience.

Because they are already producing a lot of magazines they already have deals with large distributors so my product would be widely available in a variety of places. They will also have contacts in the kind of companies that would advertise in my magazine and have a large enough presence to get heard by new companies. This large number of magazines also means that if the magazine were to fall into financial difficulty they could support us while we wait for sales to pick up.

The main reason I chose Reed though is because they have a heavy online presence which will allow a online version of the magazine which could increase revenue by advertising. This would support many of the things that tech-savvy young people use regularly (twitter, Youtube, facebook, RSS etc.). This will allow international appeal, easy sharing and make use of the 'Viral' effect as the stories are shared over online communities.

The magazine could lose some editorial Independence and have a large quantity of adverts but I think that would be good because then they can see the new devices and music out there. My audience will be very much consumers, clawing over the latest album or device. However the issue of editorial independence, or lack of it, could cause the magazine to lose the small rebellious appeal that it has. It could also cause the magazine to become more mainstream which may or may not be a good thing.

I did consider Bauer Media to distribute my magazine because they have a lot of magazines already aimed at teens. But being such a large company they would have a lot of control over that the magazine could do, which is bad when their magazines aimed at a teenage audience include "ASTROgirl" and "J-14" which may put off my, predominately, male audience.

I also considered independant publishing because it would give complete control of the content of the magazine and the number of and type of adverts featuring in the magazine. However this would make it hard to get the magazine into shops, find advertisers for it and back the magazine up financially in the case of it making a loss earlier on. I came to the conclusion that it would be better to lose some control and keep financial stability than to risk the magazine and keep full control.

Skills Development

Looking back at your preliminary task (the college magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

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Click to view Cover comparison in FlikrAfter Before

Click to view Contents comparison in Flikr

After Before

When I made the College magazine I had very basic Photoshop skills, I could use the quick-selection tool, and add text but beyond that and changing colour I had very little experience with photoshop and this shows in the quality of my preliminary task compared to my main task. While doing the main task I watched tutorials on youtube and re-read the tutorials on the college website, this increased my knowledge of the software until I was able to create what I wanted with the magazine.

For example in the masthead of my final magazine's cover I used the "Polygonal lasso tool" to create the smashed and cracked effect on the title. I took this idea from "Kerrang!" magazine and their smashed title. This appeals to the slightly rebellious tendencies in my audience. In the same text I also applied the "Bevel and Emboss" tools from the "Blending options" to make it appear to be 3-dimentional. I did this to apply to the technical side of the reader in the form of the 3D, metallic text that is common within tech magazines and websites. My preliminary task has neither of these.

From the blending options I also applied a "Stroke" around a lot of the text both on the cover and contents page which applied a border for emphasis on the page against the background. This means that the person reading the cover can easily see what is in the magazine which will help them when deciding to buy the magazine.

Finally I learnt how to use the "Adjustments" window, more specifically the "Saturation" settings to great effect on all 3 pieces. I combined this with the "Quick selection tool" and "Magic Wand" I dimmed the areas behind the model or reduced the saturation to make them stand out against the background, a good example of where I've done this is on the double page spread where I cut out his body and only applied the lower saturation to the background, leaving him unedited and bright. This draws attention to him and leads the eye to him. The closest I got to this in the preliminary task was the cover when I blurred the people in the background of the image to give an out-of-focus effect.

My research skills improved between making my preliminary task and my finished product. When making my preliminary task my research consisted of one questionnaire and basic analysis of one other magazine of a similar type. Before making my finished magazine my research consisted of looking at many similar magazines, similar websites and asking my target audience what they would want to see in a magazine. By reading similar texts I was able to get a feel of that is expected in a magazine of this nature and how they attract their audience which I then tried to emulate in my magazine.

Technologies

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The software I used to produce my magazines was Adobe Photoshop, originally I learnt from trial and error before starting the course but my knowledge was still very sketchy and I was not confident performing the most simple of tasks. Since starting the course I have expanded my knowledge of the program using tutorials on the college website, tutorials on YouTube and of course, trial & error.

Shot of the YouTube tutorial I followed to create my titles.

From my experience with it I have come to see how powerful the program is and why it is the standard program in the industry, providing you know how to use them, there are so many tools and functions, effects and renders that can completely change an image and make something fantastic. Even the things that are hard to begin with have solutions hiding in the settings and toolbars, for example when dealing with a lot of text and image effects that "Layers" tab can get very jumbled up and layers can easily get lost, however there are folder and naming tool that can be used to make navigation easier. I also customised the layout of all the toolbars for ease of access to the commonly used functions like the navigator and history tabs that I found very useful. Comparing using Photoshop to creating the documents on paper or with less powerful programs makes one realise how useful the program can be.

I used Blogger to host my work online. I have never used the site before or made a blog so I had no experience of them before starting the course. I found the layouts to be frustrating and the interface, impractical. But as a medium to show my work and evaluations it is fairly good and does the job to a decent standard.

I used Flikr to host my images for storage and annotation purposes. I found it relatively simple but basic issues with the image uploader and site crashing to be very frustrating. The annotations also look ugly and have very little room for text without obstructing the image itself. I had never used Flikr but I had used Photobucket which has a similar layout so I adjusted to Flikr with relative ease. This seems to be the problem with free, internet-based software.