What have I learnt: from preliminary to final product

By looking at both of my products, I can see a great improvement.  Firstly by the use of colours as, through lots of research, I realised that to make my magazine look professional I had to stick to 3-4 colours to attract people.  My college life magazine used a variety of bright colours compared to my main task that only used purple, black and white which gave a more professional outcome.  Through this I have learnt the colouring forms and conventions of the magazine industry.
The second way in which my main product was better than my college life magazine is through my punctuation and grammar.  My first attempt used exclamation marks in the cover lines as well a lack of punctuation.  When making my main product, I used more sophisticated punctuation to ensure my magazine was grammatically correct which ensures a professional brand creation.  I learnt here to importance of creating a band and sticking with a consistent house style
My photography has also improved.  I used a college setting in my first attempt which presented a very poor picture as it look unprofessional and messing which meant that when I done my main task, I came to the conclusion to use a studio.  Due to the use of Photoshop tools, I was able to change the brightness and contrast of my image to ensure that it stood out and that the lightly looked professional.  The use of the spot healing brush improved the models skin to sell the lifestyle of someone who looks after themselves.
The cropping tool helped me cut out my image and put it on to a white background which is much more attractive than my college magazine as I used a coloured background which looked very immature and poor quality.
I also improved the layout of my magazine to a more professional look.  I clumped together my cover lines on the right hand side of my cover which makes it easier to locate and improves the ease of reading against the white background.
I carried on using the banners at the top and bottom of my page but made them much smaller to allow my image to be bigger which makes it stand out more. 
I also changed the location of the price.  Students are attracted to low prices which is why I put my price in an emphasising shape to stand out.  On the other hand, my audience is different for my Espoir magazine which is why I placed it just under the masthead like many other magazines already being published in the industry.
My masthead has also changed more due to the change of target audience and genre of magazine.  I used a much more beautiful looking font as the main product is most aimed a females compared to my college magazine which was not gender biased.

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

I used the college computers as my main use of technology. The desktop computer was used to upload and download images from the internet as well as have more software than my own devices at home.

Blogger was very important for the documentation of my research. For my media coursework, I had to blog as the coursework was created throughout the making of my product. I also had to learn the skills to embed links to other software, such as Prezi, in an .html format to upload them to my blog. Blogger has become east to understand as due to the high level of use over the last few months.

FlipSnack is a web-based presentation which I used for blog posts. It is an alternative viewing perspective of information and is a more visual way to presenting images rather than a plain, word document. FlipSnack offers a flip-book animation with accompanying information and research on the other. Personally, I think that FlipSnack is user-friendly and is east to view.  I had never used this software prior to creating my blog but would now use it in the future.

The main software I used to create my products was Adobe Photoshop.. I found the software difficult to use as I had no previous experience with it.  With many of the tools being complicated to use due to my unfamiliarity. I used Photoshop for my preliminary task magazine as well as my main task.  Looking back on the magazine, it looked very un-professional with a lack of style and consistence which  was because of my lack experience. There are many advantages of Photoshop including the wide variety of tools to use which are very professional.  

How did you attract/address your audience?

Feature article:

To attract my audience on my feature article, I started with making sure I used a catching cover line.  I used the title of a well known west end show as I know that already interests my audience.  My kicker doesn't reveal too much about the article but I ensured that my audience would be attracted to the article by mentioning a 'private life' as audiences want to be told information that don't already know.

I ensured that my model would be looking directly at the camera as it makes the image stronger in itself as well as making the audience feel as though it is targeted specifically to them.

Within the article, the interviewer uses the words ‘our readers' and 'haha'.  This creates a relaxed tone which makes the audience feel at ease and like they know the interviewer as well as the interviewee.  By doing this, the audience is attracted to carry on reading as they find the read easy.  An audience want to feel involved with the media they are interacting with and this is why I used questions that my target audience would want to know.

Contents page:

I wanted to attract my audience to my contents page by using a big, bold image that would stand out to them.  I chose this image as it as if the model is looking at the text on the contents page which gives the impression it is something they would want to read.  An audience tends to follow what their idols would be interested in which is why I did this.
Next to every part of the 'on the cover' and 'features' part, I added a small piece of text to describe what to expect from the part of the magazine.  By doing this, I am making my audience more interested as I am leaving enough information to give them a brief idea but still keeping enough hidden to make them want to read the articles themselves.
By adding 'A not from the editor', I am giving the impression that all aspects of the magazine company are interested in the audience.  This use of hierarchy interaction allows the audience to believe their needs are being considered by everyone at the company, making them feel respect from the business which means they are more likely to return. 

Front Cover:

At the bottom of the magazine cover, I advertised the regulars of my magazine. This attracts my audience as they will return to a magazine if they liked it and it shows consistency from previous magazines.
The advert to win a theater  weekend in new York would attract the audience as it gives them to chance to win something they would be interested in.  If you’re going to read a theater magazine, new York would be the most likely place my audience would want to go as it is well known for their shows.
I highlighted the cover line main words by using a bigger/bolder font and a different colour to the rest of the cover line.  By doing this, I am encouraging the readers to make a decision to buy the magazine as they are the parts of the cover lines which are most likely to interest them- attracting them to my magazine over competitors.  In addition to this, the small piece of information following these will continue to encourage to purchase of the magazine and it reveals more about what is inside.

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

An institution like Bauer would not have published my magazine as they tend to focus on products that are aimed at the working class such as Closer which is aimed at middle aged women that would have time to look at gossip and reality reading as well as, music magazine, Q. Q would be seen as the completely opposite of my magazine as it looks at another end of the music spectrum therefore, my magazine wouldn’t fit in with a publisher like Bauer.

Looking at the magazine, my magazine doesn’t have a huge target audience to start with as its a niche product and would need huge recognition to sell a massive amount on the same scale as magazines such a Ok, Vogue, Q and NME. This leads me to thinking that self-publishing may be a good idea to focus on the magazine’s advertising, promotion and production as well as gaining a high profit as sale and advertising profits will all go to the same company.An example of this is Clash which is published by Clash magazine which is still very successful as printing copies are increasing due to the high quality of the product.
There are many different types of magazine publishers and they all have a different class of brands that are specialists in different things. I believe that my magazine would most likely to be published by Conde Nast. I came to this conclusion by looking at the magazines they already publish and the target audiences of their already existing magazines.  Conde Nast publishes magazines such as Vogue, Golfworld, Brides and Glamour and all of these magazines are aimed a females that enjoy the finer things in life and are typically middle class. They also do an addition of teen vogue which is why they may distribute my magazine as they feel comfortable with publishing to younger audiences that still continue their middle class tradition.
They’re yet to publish a magazine that focus’ mainly on the music industry within musicals so they have a place for a magazine like mine that does focus on this area.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

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

media

construction schedule