NAME: MEGAN PEETCANDIDATE NUMBER: AQ132190CENTRE: 33435 AQUINAS COLLEGE

AS Media StudiesOCR G321: Foundation Portfolio

Brief from OCR syllabus

Q1 – Who would be the audience for your media

product?

Primary AudienceThe main primary audience that my magazine is aimed at is females, this is because my magazine is a mainstream, pop hybrid magazine and it includes fashion as well as music. The fashion segments in my magazine are very feminine and aimed a woman more than men, because men can still be interested in fashion and pop music, but in my case the style is aimed at the female gender but can still be at interest to males, so I would probably class men as a secondary audience. The age range for my audience is mainly young adults and teenagers. So about 15-30. The reason for this would be that my magazine makes up of popular up to date chart music, and high street fashion. Therefore that is what I think will come of interest to that age range. Also I didn’t just go with a typical pop magazine using bright colours and I challenged this idea by making the style more sophisticated and classy. So it probably wouldn’t appeal to people below the age of 15. However these may not be the only audience who would read my magazine. As a secondary audience people who may not be interested in the music but the just the fashion of artists would be interested or people who may be doing some sort of research or simply people who know the main audience that would buy this magazine may be interested to a certain level.

Audience’s Interests Because my magazine is hybrid my ideal places my

audience would shop would be places like Topshop, River island, Urban Outfitters, Miss

Selfridge, Selfridges.

My audience may be interested in TV shows such as Keeping up with the Kardashians (fashion integrated), X Factor, which is mainly about music

but contains looking the part for example fashion and makeup. Also

Geordie Shore, Soaps like Hollyoaks, Coronation Street etc. Which are

very popular TV Shows.

Some other interests of my audience may include liking makeup and beauty

products as a lot of artists in the pop current industry are always associated with fashion an makeup and hair like

Little Mix they have perfect makeup and up to date fashion. So my audience may like brands like MAC, Nars and drugstore

brands like Rimmel. They are ideal to enjoy maybe applying makeup and doing

there hair and trying out new skincare and beauty products.

Hobbies my audience would enjoy could be, shopping, going out with

friends meals, drinks, living a social lifestyle. Keeping fit , using social networking sites such as Twitter,

Instagram and Facebook.

The type of music my audience are interested in is chart music so artists like Drake, Adele, Ellie Goulding, Beyonce and Rihanna. The reason for this it fits perfectly with the hybrid genre because each of these artists are extremely popular and fashionable especially looked up to on the high street after doing my research like Rihanna has her own clothing line with River Island.

Existing Magazine’s that are similar to my product and would have a similar audience are magazines such as Billboard, Q magazine and fashion magazine’s such as Vogue and Marie Clare and Elle.

Similar Products I researched similar magazines what I wanted my magazine to be like which

have very similar audience’s, these being magazine’s which my audience currently purchase.

A more specific example of these products would be

the music crossover with fashion

magazine Billboard and the fashion

magazine Vogue which share very

similar audience’s. Although mine will

have more of a coverage over the

UK than Billboard as it is more of an

American magazine.

As you can see Billboard is a magazine very similar to mine as it is a hybrid magazine with fashion. You know this because from looking at popular fashion magazine’s like Vogue there is a very similar layout which is clean and mainstream using cool colours which attract the right audience. Also using popular artists that are in the charts on the cover and making it not to busy attracts the similar audience to mine and this is what I want my magazine to do. Although whilst researching existing products, I learnt that there is a lack of hybrid magazines like this and it is very much one or the other. So I wanted to make one with a good balance for my audience, and bring more fashion layouts to my magazine but with typical music colours. Combining music and fashion even more.

By using a popular artist who is in the charts and is highly looked up to in fashion also is what I wanted to achieve on my cover for my audience.

Q2 – How does your product represent a certain social group?

Q2 – How does your product represent a certain social

My product appeals to a certain social group. It mainly does this with the overall look. A main part in this is the star representing my magazine has to look a certain way. Because my magazine is chart music and also a hybrid with fashion my star looks fashionable with a classy makeup look. Nothing to full on but something that compliments my star. She pulls a very posed stance as in a confident way that makes her look high fashion and that popular mainstream look. Her facial expression has to be non threatening and appeal to the social group of highstreet lifestyle’s.

In these next few slides I will show how facial expressions and stances and a certain way icons dress and look represent a certain impression on a social group depending on there audience. I will

show an example of Miley Cyrus filtering her appearance on different audience’s.

Miley Cyrus in Hannah Montana – Child Audience

Miley Cyrus – Wider audience 15-30

Miley Cyrus in Hannah Montana with a child audience – girly representation Long hair and loose

curls suggest innocence and prettiness. And the natural brown colour with highlights suggests the ‘girl next door’ look.

Minimal makeup with nude lips suggests a soft face and a pretty natural glow which is not intimidating and approachable which is crucial when having a child audience. Facial expression is

innocent with a perfect smile so she looks kind hearted and a good role model.

A pretty neutral coloured dress with flower decorations and is appropriately cut for a child audience. Shows skin in the right places but shows legs so has an age appropriate theme for her.

Black nail varnish, secret edge is hidden.

Her stance is a stereotypical very girly pose with hands on hips and legs crossed. This gives a positive vibe and fits the child audience.

The shoes are a very subtle heel and aren’t to high but they show her age. However they are a glitzy silver which shows stereotype in girls.

Miley Cyrus wider audience – rebellious representation Edgy short haircut with texture suggests chic fashion and appeals to older audience.

Facial expression is ‘sexy’ and she is biting her lip is seen as ‘hot’ and a ‘sensual gesture’.

Layered chains represent the ‘rap’ look and are on trend.

Low cut top showing chest is raunchy and for an older audience.

Crossed over lace is also raunchy giving more of a punk vibe and ‘sex appeal’.

Knee high boots, stereotype a stripper and represents an ‘X rated’ subject.

Black and white bold checker pattern suggest punk. Also edgy and bold expressing confidence .

Tattoos seen as edgy and harsh and rebellious, appealing to social groups like punk and rap.

Dress is very short and gives off danger with ‘violence’ wrote on it which has connotations with the social group rap. Top rap artists on the dress showing representation.

Her stance is confident and womanly and appeals to again a wider audience.

My Cover Star

I have carefully took photo’s of my star and made her representation mainstream. I made her appeal to the readers and inspire the correct target audience. I made sure my star is in the same age range as my audience and looks inspirational to the audience by doing her hair makeup and what she is wearing to the audience’s interests. The mise en scene of my star represents a confident woman who is happy and overcome a hard time in her life.

Mainstream Representation I made it so that my star’s makeup is classy and flawless. By having this look with a bronzed cheek and dominant eyebrows with a defined eye, it makes her look sleek and fashionable, which stands out to my audience. Also having a natural glow makes them look up to her flawlessness.

Her red lip looks high fashion and has connotations of love and fierceness. It also links my star with the colour scheme of my magazine. Also it is a popular look in fashion and artists in chart music representing a mainstream look.

Pretty pink necklace which glistens and has flowers on suggests a very on trend fashion from highstreet shops appealing to my audience and has connotations of things stereotypical girls are interested in.

Her stance is a ‘catalogue pose’ and portrays a confident and womanly body language, appealing to a mainstream audience. She is stood in a fashionable way which is pretty and chic, which is what chart music artist pose like and in highstreet fashion. By holding her hair is shows she is carefree and happy.

Facial expression is happy and she has a pretty smile which is very popular within mainstream representation. As she is looking approachable and inspirable.

Loose and natural curls in hair suggest she is carefree an give a soft tone and effortless feel. Connotates prettiness.

Black dress is classy and chic and figure hugging is fashionable and womanly.

Q3 – What kind of media institution might distribute your media

product and why?

A way I will promote my magazine is by it having its own account on social

networking sites such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and have it’s own

website.

EncoreMusicMagE

Look out for the new issue! 2013

EEncore

@encoremagazine

Encore Magazine

By promoting my magazine on these social websites is suitable because this is where the age range of my magazine come to for socialising. So it is in the right place to promote my magazine. Making more people aware and buy it. This way I can also use pictures and tweets and status updates to persuade people to buy my magazine.

Merchandising of my magazine to promote it...

E EENCORE E

ENCORE

E

I will use apps to promote my magazine. It will have its own personal app called encore this will be specialised with the company Apple. Will be available on Smartphone's like IPhone’s and IPads etc. From doing research I found that allot of my audience use this technology therefore it will be a perfect selling point.

App’s

E

E

I researched which publications company I would like to distribute my magazine I wanted one that again has allot to do with fashion as well as

music to fit my hybrid magazine. I came to the conclusion that Conde Nest UK will publish my magazine. Conde Nest is a media company that

also works highly in the UK and in America so there is a big chance of my magazine going to America not just the UK. Although the UK is where it is based with my magazine. Conde Nest are company that

originally are based in Ney York which is a popular music and fashion capital. They also publish magazine’s such as Vogue, Vanity Fair,

Glamour and GQ. All of these magazine’s are mainstream and High End, much like Encore. In Conde Nest they also have a variety of

Genre’s in what they publish but they have a sophisticated high end feel.

I think that Conde Nast is perfect to publish my magazine because all the magazines it originally publishes have a very similar target audience therefore grossing more for my magazine. I also think it challenge’s the idea of a music magazine not being in a typical publication where all other music magazines are and gives the magazine variety.

ENCORE

This is one of the ways they will publish my magazine on their website and as you can see long with all the other magazine’s and when you select the option they promote the apps and the magazine with social networks and show the audience different ways of being involved of your magazine.

Q4 - In what ways does your media product use,

develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

The genre of my magazine is a hybrid magazine. This is where fashion and music are crossed over. The genre of music is pop and therefore the fashion is high street. Everything in my magazine is current and the music being like chart music. I took a different perspective on the typical girly pop magazine and challenged this idea by making mine for older teenagers and young adults. I made my whole theme more sophisticated. I carefully selected a few existing Front Covers, Contents Page’s and Double Page Spreads from both fashion and music magazines, similar to the kind of style’s I want. Which inspired my work.

My Front Cover and my Inspiration

Mainly to inspire my front cover the most I chose Billboard a music magazine that is very current and popular. I particularly like Billboard because it is a pop magazine but it uses sophisticated colour schemes much like i aimed for in my own front cover. I like the way the image is the main feature and everything just fits around it. i took conventions used in the Billboard magazine and made them my own using some quite similar ideas in my own front cover. I then looked at a fashion magazines front cover I chose Vogue as it is very sophisticated and I love the way they style their masthead to make the cover look sleek and again the image from hips upward.

The Masthead

This is the mast head that I created for my front cover. As you can see I have used the same technique as Billboard on my ‘O’ but for my theme i have made it black because I think that it looks more classy this way, corresponding with the font style I have used. I have also limited it down to one letter as I don’t think it would work with any other letter. Also this way I think that the masthead stands out with just one.

Something that I really liked about the masthead in Billboard was that the ‘a’ and the ‘d’ were filled in. I think this just gives more depth to the text and makes the appearance look more exciting and professional.

The inspiration I took from the masthead of this fashion magazine is that I like the font style of it because I think that it makes the magazine a certain style and aims at that older teenage and young adult target audience. I didn’t want to use the exact same font in my Masthead I just wanted to use one similar that looked squared off at the end of the letters. I didn’t want to use the same because I thought it would identify my magazine as a fashion one, and that’s not what I want. Mine is mainly music and has a fashion feature in it. So I developed this idea by using ‘Angsana UPC’ font and as you can see is different to Vogue's but a little similar.

The Image

I particularly liked the image on the cover of Vogue as it appears as the biggest convention on the cover which is what I wanted. The shot it a mid-length one and is waist – hips upward. In this cover it is Beyoncé who is a current pop artist and the image expression reflects the story as her stance is confident and the story is to do with her being at her best. Also her hair and makeup and outfit tie in to be quite sophisticated but really fashionable as it is a fashion magazine and her whole look goes with the colour scheme of the cover.

As shown on my image for my front cover I have also done a waist/hips up shot but put Georgia on a slant this position reflects my story of her being happy and makes the cover look more dynamic. I also did Georgia’s hair and makeup sophisticated but her hair was a bit messy curls as I think this reflects more the music side as I don’t want it to be too fashionable. Much like Beyoncé in Vogue I made sure Georgia was wearing colours that fit with my colour scheme. I chose a black dress and red lipstick and I think this worked really well. I accessorised with a pick necklace because this reflects the typical pop genre as I have quite harsh colours but because of the highstreet clothes it makes it more high end and is colour co-ordinated.

Double Page Spread and my Inspiration

To inspire my magazine’s Double Page Spread I took points from a variety of different magazine’s. I tried to stick with ones from magazines that inspire the whole of my magazine. That way I know what I am doing is attracting the my target audience. I took mainly my inspiration from a double page spread in Q magazine of Lady Gaga. One from top of the pops with Justin Bieber and then found an interestingly mainstream inspired one of Adele in Rolling Stone.

In the next slide it shows the inspirations next to my finished cover and I will go on to explain the conventions that inspired me and I developed to make

my own. You can clearly see how mostly the image takes up one if not more of one of the pages in the spread and this is how I wanted mine they all

follow a sophisticated and classy colour scheme to achieve the look that I wanted.

Main Image

I particularly like the image in the rolling stone double page spread. I like how much of a big feature this is on the page and it gets your attention. I love the way the artist is looking in a different direction and it makes the audience wonder, I really wanted to challenge this in my image. I wanted to develop the frame in my DPS because in this one it is just neck upward. The way the image is black and white gives the page more class and definition and looks classy with greys and whites and blacks and one dominant colour in the page. It makes it stand out and pop.

In my image I used it as a big feature of the page and this way it grabs the audience’s attention straight away, inviting them to read the article. I challenged the idea of the star looking a different way and had mine looking down, I think this worked really well because it compliments the dynamic of the photo and the facial expression and makes It look innocent and soft. At the same time making the audience question why she is looking down. It compliments the whole frame being waist upward and looks balanced especially because her hair is a big part of this. I took the idea of making it black and white from the inspiration I think it makes the photo look high fashion and shows the audience the authenticity and elegance of the star. The effect especially makes her makeup look soft and gently and compliments her hair and jewellery. Making my star look inspirational to the audience

From looking at the other Title’s I took quite allot of techniques for this convention which are typically apparent in popular chart music magazine’s. As you can see from the Adele DPS even though the rolling stone isn’t pop magazine it uses elements such as the artist and high end looking fonts. I decided to take the dynamic of the title to my DPS as you can see the fonts are similar in a way that they look sleek and touch each other at a certain point looking smooth and flowing.

From the DPS Title of Justin Biebers interview I took the fact that some of the words are a different colour and developed it in my title by just making one letter a different colour. Making it correspond with the rest of the colour scheme. I also like the banner under the title and instead of using it as a banner on my DPS I used it as a decoration for the page and had a sub title underneath I think it gives the page more depth and professionalism.

I like the way in the DPS above uses Italic to separate the subtitle from everything else. I used this in my DPS as it is staple for a chart music (pop) magazine which suggests fashion and elegance in the way the writing appears.

In both Adele's DPS and Lady Gaga’s. Both magazines use Emboldened letters to make the beginning of the Interview stand out. This is a very popular convention in pop magazine’s when it comes to an interview and I used this at the start of my interview making it look more structured and professional. I challenged the idea by using it in my headline also it then makes my DPS have some sort of connection much like the L behind the text on Lady Gaga’s DPS below.

In the double page spread of Justin Biebers what I liked was the layout of the interview and how it was in Q and A form. I think it is a good idea that the questions are a different colour and I wanted to take this to my DPS because it separates the question from the answer for the reader, making it really easy to read.

In my interview I decided to develop the Q and A form and make the questions stand out by making them bold and italic in the same colour. This way it still stands out without having too much of a different colour and this way because I added a pull quote to rope in the audience even more I could change the colour of that and it wouldn’t be to much. I think overall it makes it look clean and well thought out. Especially the italic writing Connotates elegance and girly things. which fits my target audience. It makes the audience want to read it because it gets straight to the point.

Contents Page and my Inspiration

For my contents page I used a Marie Claire which is a fashion magazine as inspiration and a Billboard contents page for Inspiration which is a chart magazine both of these magazine’s have a similar audience to me. Billboard includes popular artists and chart music like my magazine and I will show you what conventions and techniques to took to construct my own contents page.

As you can see for the headline for my contents page I was inspired by the Marie Claire Headline. I liked the way the words collided and therefore used this in my page. This makes the headline appear more sleek an interesting and gives trust to the audience that everything is in place. It looks clean with the font which is important in a pop type of hybrid with music and fashion magazine.

To present the features on my contents page I was inspired by Marie Claire by categorising them so that they appear less cluttered and clean on the page.

In my contents title I have used a bold underlined banner to separate the title from all the other texts. I did this to make the page look sharp and presentable.The underlining of the contents is a bold statement which emphasise the strong personality of the magazine. In addition this is a positive point as you want the reader to be interested in the content of the magazine.

This is my overall contents page compared to existing ones that gave me inspiration. I used the idea of listing the page numbers on the left side of the page and the images on the right. This gives the page construction and makes it tidy and clear to read. This is important with a contents page because everything has to be clear and easy to understand so the audience are interested in the stories that are conducted in the magazine. In addition I thought the colour scheme in the ‘Marie Claire’ contents page worked really well together for example the red and black. I used this in my contents page to create a professional and sophisticated feel.

Q5 – How did you attract/address your audience

How my Front Cover Attracts my Audience

Bold Masthead

Main Image – Star who is pretty and looks Inspirable to my audience addresses and attracts

Banner (mentions variety of content)

Features

Red used as a bold colour which catches the readers eye

Names of popular mainstream artists

The word ‘Exclusive’ stands out to the audience as it’s more personal to them and feel like they’re getting the best information on the market.

Pug

Font style is appropriate to audience its clean, modern and sleek.

Barcode, Price and date. Attracts because Professionalism and trust in the magazine.

How my Cover Star Attracts and Addresses my audience?

My cover star is aged 17 this attracts my readers as the age range is between 15 – 30. the reader can therefore relate to the star. She has well perfected makeup and looks on trend with clothes and jewellery which gives off a mainstream representation and a happy vibe. This addresses my reader because they aspire to be like my cover star. Also her mainstream representation fits with the genre pop. But has a sophistication element to it. Because the gender of my star is female this addresses most of my target audience as it is mostly females that will read my magazine.

I have used colour to address my audience because by using the colour scheme Red, Black, Grey and White. They appear sleek to my audience making them feel as if they are reading a high end magazine which also communicates with fashion. This speaks to my audience a lot because that’s the type of style my audience prefer fitting with the genre of the magazine. The colours also attract the audience a lot because they are purposely made to stand out to

The Subtitle in the Features ‘Fashion Feature’ attracts my audience because of the font style being Scripted it makes the page look more exciting and addresses the audience as it connotes fashion and glamour which is perfect for a hybrid magazine to separate the music from fashion.

The social networking brand logo’s and website address, attracts my audience because they know that there are multi platforms to my magazine to get involved. Also it addresses a mainstream type audience because it’s a typical stereotype that they enjoy communicating within the social media.

The use of Secondary image attracts my audience as there is more than 1 image to look at. Also the colours pink and the content of the image addresses pop culture and things my audience like e.g. pink Hunters and Festivals like Parklife or Wireless.

The editors letter attracts my audience because it shows that the editor is interested in what they put in the magazine. By having a picture of the editor attracts the reader to what she or he looks like. Also the colloquial language used in the letter ‘fashion and music duo’ addresses the audience as it is informal and chatty.

The bold title attracts the reader as it says the stars name in it and it big and clear and easy to read.

The use of colour to highlight the first letter attracts the readers eye and the way it is composed on the page gives it a sleek look making it pleasing to my target audience.

The image on my DPS is big and is a main part to my page. It attracts the audience by being black and white because it looks pleasing with the overall effect of the page. It makes the page look sleek and sophisticated this is what my target audience prefer to see as they are a mainstream audience and into high street modern fashion which are elements to in my image like makeup, hairstyle and clothes.

the language in which my magazine speaks to is very informal in my DPS. It is typical of what my audience wants to talk about e.g. ‘boys’ and also music of a mainstream artist. This attracts and addresses my audience.

The bold format of the way the Q and A is set out is very clear to the audience because the question is clearly noticeably different from the answer by using emboldened text this attracts the reader because it makes it easy to read.

Q6 – What have you learnt about

technologies from constructing this

product?

Equipment

Through the process of constructing my magazine, when taking photo’s for my magazine’s both Music and College one I learnt how to use equipment that was new to me. I used DSLR camera and studio lights with background such as a white background and green screen. These are essential when you want to make your photo’s look professional because the camera was high quality and the lights made everything look clear an bright but not to fake and saves editing, and the white background allowed me to have a blank canvas for my photo’s to look clean.

Survey Monkey

I also learnt how to use the website survey monkey. This was used to process information about my audience. From this you can create a survey and clearly see what was more successful. This really

helped me because I could see what interested my target audience for example which social networking site they liked the most. This allowed me to please my audience when creating the

magazine especially to there interests

Blogger

I also learnt how to create and document my work on my own blog. This allowed me throughout the unit to

broadcast any work on it and show my progress to my teacher so they can see all of the work I created. It also allowed me to see my own progress and show

research I have done before creating the final Magazine pages.

Photoshop

I learned to use an editing programme called Photoshop this allowed me to do a lot of things but I mostly used it for editing out white backgrounds so that they could be transparent.

I would insert my image into Photoshop and use the magic eraser tool to go around my image deselecting white pixels to make the background transparent

Overall result

I would have to save it as JPEG (an image) for it to be transferred onto my piece.

Q7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you

have learnt in the progression from this to

the final product?

In stage one of creating my Aquinas music magazine I had to do a flat plan of my cover and contents page. This helped me construct a good first attempt at a cover and contents page. As you can see I followed my plan and it helped me to construct it the way I wanted to and a chance to see how well plans work out.

As you can see above is the completed cover for the first Aquinas task. As you can see I have used conventions such as secondary images and pugs and banners. Although it doesn’t look as professional as my finished main Music Magazine you can clearly see how my construction work has improved of the features because they look a lot more neat and tidy on my Encore magazine. You can also see how my Photoshop skills have improved a lot from the image on my front cover not fully transparent to my Music Magazine Encore’s image looking sleek and clean. I think that from doing the first task I liked the colours Red, Black and White and I developed this idea through to my actual magazine. Where as I have incorporated greys to make my page look more professional.

As you can see my First Aquinas magazine contents page is a lot less professional to the Encore’s Contents Page. I think I developed my skills in trying different Ideas such as different fonts for example a highly developed font in Encore Contents Page. I think I used the same per portion as my Aquinas contents page because I liked it but as you can see overall as far as bannering and using shapes to bring the final Encore Contents together it looks better than my first unit Aquinas Magazine contents page.