SARAH ESPIE

A.S Coursework Production

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real

media products?

Cover Page

Direct mode of address to the audience – looking straight into the camera. The eye contact is

made between the model and the audience which draws them into

the magazine.

Masthead – the magazineis called HEAR, relating to music

instantly.Font- Perpetua Titling MT / Bold

Size – 20.29ptI chose the colour ‘off white’ so

that it stood out in front of the image

and background.

I chose the colours red and green to feature the most in my

magazine as these were the most popular choices when I

did my target audience research by giving out

questionnaires and interviewing people. This also

worked well as this is a December issue and these two

colours relate to Christmas time.

The page is cluttered with information, there is a lot to look at which is good as it attracts the

buyer as they have to stop to read it.

Cover lines are the side stories that are going to be inside the

magazine. I have placed them at either side of the main image to fill

the blank spaces.Font - Georgia

Size – 10ptBarcode and date line. This is the first issue of

the magazine so it is issue number 1.

There is only one image on the whole front cover which means the audience is fully

concentrating on it and they’re not distracted by

anything else.

As this is a new magazine I chose to put the main image

behind the mast head text as it is not known well enough yet to

cover up with an image.

Strap line at the top of the page which also tells you

about other pages that are going to be included in the

magazine.

Content Page - Comparison

Content Page

The main colour scheme that I have focused on for my

magazine is red. Here I have brought it onto the content page

to link it to my front cover.

I have put the main headings for the different pages in bold so that they stand out more in front of

the other text. This way it is clearer to see which page is

which.

The subscription box needed to stand out on the page so that it

attracts the reader to it. To highlight the word ‘SAVE’ I used

yellow text, I think this works well as there is no other yellow

text on the page so it is eye catching.

December issue – small details showing month of

magazine

The WIN here will attract attention as the audience will be interested in what it is they

can win.

Page numbers within large amount of texts in bold so that

they stand out and are easier to see.

The same font text as used on the front cover.

This text is not used anywhere else in the magazine other than

when the ‘HEAR’ title is used.

There are only 4 images used on my content page, all of them were taken/created by myself. The two main pictures are of

Katy Perry and Pixie Lott, straight away telling us that this will be one of the main

stories in the magazine.As well as the feature pages I

have also included other sections in my magazine for the

small side stories. These sections will stay the same each

week so there will always be Features, Live!, Reviews, Radar

and +Plus pages.

I plan to keep the layout of the content page the same each

week just with different stories and images.

Double Page Spread - Comparison

Double Page Spread

Similar to other double page

spreads I researched there is

a main image on one page and the text/interview on the other. I think

this looks professional, I had to mirror flip the main image in Photoshop as I

wanted the artist to be looking onto

the rest of the story.

I edited the main image in Lightroom to make the colours

more vibrant.

Small side image of the singer again from

a different angle.

Purple colour scheme through out

the whole double page spread which links it all together and makes it look neat. The purple

colour also shows feminism.

Three columns of text which is very common with real media magazine

products such as the double page spread

research on the previous slide.

Small introduction at the start of the article

introducing the artist and what the article is going

to be. Large quote from the main article repeated in bigger letters, this is very common for double page spread

interviews.

The name of the artist is big and bold so that

the read can see it straight away, it is also in capital letters so it stands out against the

other small text. Advertising the iTunes link to the artists new song, this offers the audience further

information.

The pages of the magazine I produced only contained pictures of women, there is writing about the male music artists showing they’re successful with the things they do, but not actually any images of them. In my magazine the artists I have talked about are all around the age ground of 18-30 showing they are young, this is so that my target audience can relate back to them somehow.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My front cover is representing blonde women to be strong and powerful, they are seen to being big, successful, beautiful people. The way she is posing shows she is very dominant, her eyes are wide open and most of her face is on display. Her hair looks long and thick showing she cares about the way she looks. The make up she is wearing on her lips is a bold colour that stands out which also signifies her personality is very outgoing and not boring. She has a blank facial expression and is starring straight into the camera, this could be seen as being quite intimidating. This is what could attract the male audience to this magazine as it shows women as being masculinised. This point joins with Carol Clovers ‘Final Girl’ theory, where women are seen being de-feminised so that males have something to relate to with them and don’t just see them as being sex objects.

These two women are well known successful music artists. The pictures were took when I went to see them in concert, these image are on my content page. It shows them performing to a lot of people which shows them being popular and well known, it shows that they are doing well of themselves.

This a low angle camera shot which signifies that this women is above everybody else. She is looking down on the camera making the audience feel small and intimidated as she looks much bigger than us. She isn’t smiling and has no facial expression, we don’t understand her feelings which makes it uncomfortable for us to look at. Her make up is very bold and striking showing she isn’t shy. I edited this image in lightroom, I used an effect called vignetting which adds a shadow in each of the four corners, this draws focus to her face which makes it stand out a lot, there is nothing else in the shot distracting us from her signifying her strength to over-power people.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

IPC is a international media publishing company located in the UK – London with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. They have produced well known magazines such as NME, Now, Look, Marie Claire , Nuts, Rugby World and many more. IPC media publish and advertise their magazines through the radio, television and on the internet. I think that my magazine ‘Hear’ would fit in nicely with IPC Media as they only produce one other music magazine, NME.

As IPC Media is already a well known, recognised publishing company, if they were to distribute my magazine it would hopefully become popular quite fast as they already have such a large fan base in place, so they would pick up on new products that were produced.

My HEAR logo is quite similar to the NME one, it is based around the same colours, this could work well for IPC Media as these colours could be used to represent all of heir music products.

If my magazine was distributed by IPC Media, it would be good for them as they would have a new, fresh product on the scene, which would hopefully attract more people to their brand.My magazine covers all genres of music so that it appeals to different types of people, this will broaden the audience range. Being a music magazine it would also give IPC Media the opportunity to have another Radio station as well as NME, this will again stretch their fan base and advertise more.

Using the television as another source of advertisement IPC Media could create a music channel called HEAR that would constantly stream music videos and new releases.

Q3.

I decided to create a iPhone App that can be downloaded on to your mobile phone, iPod or iPad. I thought this would be a good idea to use as the young generation are becoming more and more technology based, in stead of buying the magazine in a shop they can now read it on-the-go where ever they want on a portable device. I think my target audience of 16-30 year olds would enjoy this as it will fit into their lifestyle and they will be familiar with the concept. IPC Media already have downloadable magazines on the Apple App Store such as NME and Marie Claire. You could charge the same price for the magazine online as it is in the shops (£2.50) but the subscription would be available where it could download onto your device every month for a cheaper price.

I also considered Bauer Media to be the distributer of my magazine but I decided against it. After doing some research on the matter I found out that they already produce three other well known, successful music magazines such as Q!, Kerrang! and Mojo. I thought for them to distribute another music magazine it might not work too well as my magazine would struggle to compete with the others as it is new to the market.

Then use photographs to show the various retail outlets where you would expect your magazine to be

sold.

The magazine I have produced is a high quality magazine. I would expect it to be sold in shops that sell other magazines similar to mine such as NME, Q and Kerrang.

WHSmith is a well known shop popular for the range of magazines, stationary and books that it sells. I think this shop would be an ideal distributer of my media product as people will shop in there regularly for music magazines.

The Virgin Mega Store would be a perfect place for my music magazine to be sold as it is already such a large company known all over the world. They have many different areas in store so it appeals to a lot people.

I think that my media product would fit in nicely at a news agents as they sell near enough every genre of magazine from sports to fishing, womens weekly, tv guides, home living, mens magazines and many more.

Other music stores and supermarkets would also be good distributers for my media product.

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The main target audience for my magazine would be teenagers and young adults aged 16-25. I chose this age range as my research showed me that this age group are more likely to buy music magazines than any other. It works well with the artists that I have chosen to feature in my magazine as they relate more with the younger generation. I have priced my magazine at £2.50 as I think that is a reasonable price and affordable for my target audience, it is not too much money for students and young people living on a low budget. I also want my magazine to appeal to both ethnicities so I have included artists that are of a different race.

This is an image of two girls aged 17 and 18 at a music festival called Wakestock, you can see the pink festival wrist band on each girl. They are dancing and having fun, I think these are the type of people who would buy my magazine as they obviously like listening to music and enjoy live.

This group of people are ideal representatives for my target audience. They are all aged 18-20 at a music festival. It is a group of both males and females which shows my magazine can appeal to both sex. They are all smiling and look happy, the group is close which shows their friendship which also re-enforces the fact that they are a social able group of students. They are wearing typical casual outdoor wear showing they’re middle class.

This is a female aged 16, she is in a music store called HMV listening to the headphones available to try out. This shows she is keen about music and likes checking out new gadgets that are on offer. My magazine would be well suited for this female as I have included a competition where you can WIN a pair of designer headphones.