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

I feel as if I have learned a lot about different technologies and software on the computers and iMacs as I have been using them a lot and it has enabled me to go further with them and learn a lot about what they can do and what i can do with them to make projects and things I want to do as good as possible.

I have become a lot better at researching for what I want to find. As I have had to research a lot over the past few weeks on different magazines and people I feel as if I have improved in my researching skills by being bake to find out exactly what I wanted, which I was then able to use for practical reasons and for influencing the turn out of my magazine. I also learned how to collect and organise my research in which i have found so I can access it easily and read and look back on it easily.

I also learned al out about how the magazine was supposed to be set out. I learned about the F, Z and E plan. before in the first magazine I made 'LCPost' I just put all of the text and pictures in random places which made it look very unorganised and not very realistic. After learning about the different plans and how the magazine has to be layer out in a certain way to be aesthetically pleasing and easy to read i developed my magazine to make it look the best I could and as easy to read as possible but still look professional.

As well a that I learned about how a picture should be taken. I learned about the main lights, the key light, fill light and hair light, to crate a quality picture and different moods in a picture and how they effect the out come of the completed result. Also I have learn how to set up a camera using the focus on it and a tri pod to get the best angle, height and quality for the picture to make it as good as possible. By knowing how to use the camera and how to set it up I was able to get the best shots for my magazine by being bake to get the focus on the subject I want and being able to create different moods/atmospheres and still situations on frames.

I found out that I had to get the right fashion for my magazine and matched what audience I was going for and also the different bands the magazine would consist of. I researched that fashion is almost everything in the magazine for first glance as it shows what all of the magazine is going to look like on the inside so it has to get the right fashion so it all fits in together and it looks presentable to the audience I am going for. 

Everything I researched into the creation of my magazine was essential as all of it would reflect on what my complete magazine would look like and how realistic it would look. My research was so I could make my magazine look as good and realistic as it could possibly be. I wanted it to look realistic so it looked as if it would be sold in a real shop to the public.

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

Skills I have acquired is how to use the three main lights, the key light, fill light and hair light, to crate a quality picture and different moods in a picture and how they effect the out come of the completed result. Also I have learn how to set up a camera using the focus on it and a tri pod to get the best angle, height and quality for the picture to make it as good as possible. I took over 200 photos in total to try and get the best pictures as i could possibly get in the best quality and to try out and look at lots of different types of photos that I could do through the positioning and the lighting to crate different moods and atmospheres for what i was aiming for in my magazine and to fit the contents of the page it is on

To crate my magazine I used an Apple iMac with all of the software on. I used the iMac as it was much quicker and better to use than the other standard computers that we had. As I had never used an iMac before there was a lot for me to learn on how to use one and all of the software on it such as iPhoto, Photoshop, Microsoft Word and Adobe Bridge. After some time and by using the iMac quite a lot and lots of different software i became used to the iMac and all it had to offer and i am not comfortable with using one and doing various different things on it.

I also used photoshop and learned how to add pictures and also edit them such as air brushing them, cropping them and cutting them. I also learned how to add text and change colours of the picture and text. By learning this I was able to make my magazine look exactly how I wanted with the best colour scheme as i could get, the best text I could use and I could also touch up the pictures used in my magazine so there is no faults in them and they could look high quality and professional.

To crate my article for my double page spread I used Microsoft Word to assist me. I had used Microsoft Word before so it was quite easy to get to grips with however I had never done it on and iMac before so I had a little learning to do to get used to it but after a short time I was able to use it the best I could.

To record my work, map it all out and keep track of my progress I used the website 'Blogger'. I found it very easy to use as I had used it before for previous work in media. Because of this it was very easy to do my work and make it look how i wanted it to so it was easy to navigate and read.

To present my 25 word pitch i used online software called 'Prezi'. It is used for presentations in a sort of powerpoint format. When Ifirst started using Prezi it was quite confusing as I had never used it before, although after using it for a while and playing around with the different features and what you could do with it I finally got used to it and learned all that it had to offer so I could create the best 25 word pitch presentation I could.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I looked at the way I could attract my audience that I wanted to attract. By looking at many different magazines I found out that big letters as the mast head at the top of the page would attract the most people as it is very eye catching and easy to read. Also, having a short title helps because it is not much to read straight away so the reader knows what the magazine is straight away just by having a glance at it. I got the idea from NME magazine and Link magazine which both use this method to attract people to read their magazine. I also got the idea off of them as they are both similar genres to my magazine.

The colour scheme of the magazine is very simple of red and black over a white background, with the exception of an orange strip on one side of the magazine. I did the colour scheme like this because I believe that they are uni-sex colours and do not lean towards males or females. It creates a quite professional and posh look but also quite a young look at the same time to make it appeal to my target audience. This look continues on through my double page spread and contents to make it easy to read and also so it looks like the same magazine all the way though.

The pictures included fit the look of the magazine as the look professional but have a bit of a playful and young look as well as some of the pictures are quite serious and others something is happening in them or half and half. A good example of this is the picture in my contents page (top picture) where 'Connor' is closer to the lens and being quite serious and 'Dino' is more playful by pulling a face in the back ground. The pictures were taken themselves in a studio using three different lights, and a Nikon D3200. I picked the clothing myself but telling my models to bring in their best shirts and smart individual clothing so it was bake to be as similar to my target audience as possible and therefore attracting the type of people I wanted.

The contents and features of my magazine would all appeal to my target audience because all of the artists and bands within the magazine are within the music genre I am aiming for so it would appeal to them all as they would most likely like all of the bands within the magazine and they would like to read all about them.

The content of my DPS attracts the audience that i am going for as it reflects a real life situation that the people who are reading the magazine may be involved in because its of the music genre the readers would like so they would like to read more about what happened when they were there. Also it may attract to the people that weren't there as they would like the duo so want to learn about it and also it is quite and exciting story and title of the article which would bring in the audience.

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

I decided to make my target audience 15-28 years old so it is within  the teenage and young adult stage. The reason for this is that most of the bands featured in my magazine are of that age and the main fan bases of these bands and artists are of that age because my type of genre and the fashion and attitude matches.

Fraser matches my type of audience as the style of his look and clothes is quite individual and different and it fits in with the genre of my magazine as it aims to be different and individual. He is mainly interested in the media that he creates such as Spotify and iTunes instead of listening to the radio so he can make it to how he likes it and can listen to the music he wants to.

On Frasers phone he has bands like Arctic Monkeys, Oasis, The Smiths and Kasabian. These are all inde rock bands however he still has more individualism as there are unrelated artists on his phone such as Johnny Cash which expresses his individualism and thats the kind of person I am going for.

In his spare time he likes to go to gigs and festivals if there are any on to see his favourite bands but mainly he is looking on twitter to see what the latest trends are and what different artists are doing and looking like, he also likes to go shopping and online shop for clothes to increase his collection of fashion and to keep his look of looking different to everyone else such as rare and expensive branded  clothing. He is also always listening to music and lots of different bands and looking for new bands to get into.

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

This media institution would distribute my magazine as my magazine is similar to NME and Link. It is relevant that it is similar to NME as IPC Media is the distributer of NME so they distribute the same genre of magazine as what my magazine is. It also distributes to the same age, gender and type of person as my magazine.
I would sell my magazine in newsagents, online subscriptions, iOS (such as iTunes, Newsstand and iBooks) and Android apps and also supermarkets. The reason for selling out on iOS and Android is that my audience would be with their phones all the time as it will be for young adult and they would be on their phones the most out of all age groups so it can be quick and convenient for them to read the magazine and they can do it anywhere without having to go to a shop and buy it.

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

My magazine is mainly indie with mainly the same type of genre of music within the magazine and the same types of bands. The bands are all male however it brings in a male audience as well as a female audience, from ages that range from 15 to 28 as the music appeals to both genders and the looks of the bands may attract females or homosexual males. This is also because fashion is involved in the magazine instead of music. The reason i have done this is that it is very popular but all the people are different so I could put a lot of different personalities in the magazine and please everyone.

My magazine stereotypically represents the indie/hipster type of people but in  a positive way as it shows off the nice and different clothing that they all wear and of what they do. It is trying to promote
all of what they do and who they are and showing the lifestyle of hipsters. It also shows off the music taste of hipsters/indie type people and it draws people into being like them if someone listens to the music it may make them live that life style or view positively upon them.

The magazine is based on NME and link with a simple colour scheme so it is not too overwhelming for the reader and it seems a lot more indie than having numerous colours in one. Also, with the simplistic look I put large bold fonts for the headers and mastheads and then a small font for the main text.

After researching on UK tribes I decided I wanted to appeal towards hipsters as I felt they were the best audience to go towards as they fit the best to the genre of my magazine and they were male and female and could be of all sexualities. Also they were of young ages which is what I was aiming for. I represented them the best i could through the use of my models. All of my my models and magazine lay out show a more of an indie rock/hipster type of person as my models are wearing buttoned and collared shirts with skinny jeans and, with the one model you can see wearing shoes in the contents, all black smart shoes. The clothing range ranges from branded and unbranded smart casual clothing from shops like Top Man/Top Shop, Wardrobe and Wellgosh. It appeals to people who take on personalities from other artists so they are similar to them or try to be extra different to express their personality and individualism. Also, the people reading this magazine are going to be creative such as musicians or highly into fashion and celebrity fashion. The style and personality is very much similar the the band Arctic Monkeys. Showing off how they are so different to everybody else and how individual they are by what they wear, how they act, what they do and what they say.

The pictures I took were very typical of the indie kind of scene as they have very serious faces and are either doing completely nothing with their hands or just doing something little like holding something or touching their faces. I had the pictures face on mainly the top half of the body and the models looking directly into the camera which is very stereotypical of  indie magazines and bands like that.

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

During the research stage I looked at many different magazines in and out of my genre choice to see lots of different ideas of real magazines and to see what i liked best about them and what I didn't. I also looked at different magazines to get ideas of what I could use in my very own magazine so I could make it look as realistic as possible. Looking at the different lay outs of covers and the plans, the 'F Plan', the 'Z Plan' and the 'E Plan'. I like the look of the Z plan in magazines that I looked at the best as it allows the reader to read left to right, then across, then left to right again and I felt as it was the easiest to read so when planning my magazine I took the Z plan into consideration and tried to make my magazine like that.

Researching different magazines it was clear that i needed to use the rule of three; the way the page is divided portrait and landscape, the colour scheme and the different fonts that are used. This is so it didn't too cluttered and un easy on the eye. I looked though many magazines, front to back, and on the internet to see what colours worked best and to see what colours were used the most in media today. I also looked at the colour scheme to see what appealed to different types of people and different genders as the colour scheme has to match the type of audience that i wanted to read my magazine.

Initially I tried to almost copy the look and design of the NME magazines as I liked the look of them and it fit perfectly into my genre of music and type of audience I was going for. I liked the idea of a short bold magazine title as it would be easy to remember and the mast head is the largest text on the page so it makes it eye catching and easy to read so the reader knows exactly what the magazine is. I also liked the colour scheme of only having a couple of colours, like red and black, on  a white background with the artists on the front doing different poses. 

I came up with the idea of one person being upside down at the top of the page and another the right side up at the bottom of the page myself as i thought it was a creative, innovative idea that was quite unusual but still looked good.

I changed the look of the magazine a lot to fit in with a new magazine, called 'Link', that I had found that looked a lot better and well organised than NME so I took that as inspiration and it helped me crate my magazine by it giving me strong ideas for my cover which i could carry on through to my contents and double page spread as well. but, I still kept elements of NME magazine within my magazine such as the short title and large mast head and also simple colour scheme which was also used in the Link magazine.

I focused a lot on the graphology and type of language within the magazine as i wanted to get the right look and read for my audience that I had chosen. Testing a lot i needed to find and create the most appealing look of my magazine which is both easy to read and also looks good. The best this is shown in my magazine is the contents page. It uses a good font for all of the page as it shows what is important on the page and what is not and also the size and positioning of the font shows what is needed to be read first so it makes it easy for the reader to know what is going to come up. I took the idea of using the rule of three from other magazines is the columns of the contents by putting the text and contents into three straight columns with a picture in the middle column to show the importance of the 

article.

Pictures: Pictures were the essential part of the magazine as it shows what is going to be within the magazine and it pulls in the right audience for the magazine as the band/artist on the front has to appeal to the genre of the magazine and to the audience. Also, the mise en scene impacts the picture as the setting has to be in a place that the band would be normally in and maybe relate to the readers and also what they wear has to be similar to the reader so it sets trends and appeals to them. I loosely based my magazine cover on this NME magazine (right) of Disclosure where both of the artists are upside down. However, I did not like the idea of both of the artists being upside down as it can get confusing and it is right behind the mast head so it draws your attention away from one or the other. So I decided to flip the left one over to make it the right side up so it compliments the Z plan a lot more with one in the top right and a bother in the bottom left and out also leaves room for text next to the pictures. I also had the pictures close up with just enough to see the top of the persons shirts to show off the fashion but closer so it shows the emotion and look of the people on the magazine. On my Double page spread I did a mid shot of my artists to show off the fashion a lot more and also show what they are doing in the picture and how they would feel.