AS Media StudiesOCR G321: Foundation Portfolio

Brief from OCR syllabus

Name: Abigail CreweCandidate number :Centre: 33435 Aquinas College

Question 1

Who would be the audience for your media product?

I aimed my magazine at..

Women

Ages 16 - 20

Who like indie music

Who shop at:

Who go to festivals

Who are educated

My target audience for my media product would be people who are into indie music as that is my genre. My demographic would be girls who are aged between 16 and 20 because I think that the things that my magazine include will be more towards the young adults. Also, girls this age who like artists like Haim, Birdy or the Arctic Monkeys and who are likely to go to festivals like Leeds. Also part of my target audience would be people who shop at places like Zara, Topshop and River Island because I will include vouchers for shopping sprees and money off, which will entice the audience more.

Most of the ideas for what my target market would be, came from a questionnaire which I conducted to find out what people like and don’t like…

I found that the majority of people like to shop at Topshop and River Island, and to include vouchers from these would be good considering they can be quite expensive for a student.

Another thing I found, was that the most favoured genre of music was Rock, however because Indie was tied in second I thought it would be interesting to create an Indie magazine instead.

Twitter and Facebook found to be the most popular

I feel that it and its audience will be like Q magazine, except maybe more mainstream. It seems that at the moment, there are not many Indie music magazines in the market and this gives perfect opportunity to create another one. Q is a very popular magazine as well, so I feel that my magazine would too get a lot of readers.

Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product presents particular social groups by my cover star – I wanted my cover star to represent the ideal reader so that they could relate to them and fit the genre of my magazine. I wanted the star to appeal to as many consumers as possible so they must seem friendly and fun…

I chose a picture where she is giving direct eye contact so that she is connecting with the reader, and it makes her seem more friendly to the reader.She is wearing a floral cardigan so that she looks innocent and welcoming; by dressing her in neutral clothes it gives off a more relaxed vibe.

On my contents page, I wanted to include a picture that showed her personality more. By including a picture where she is ruffling her hair up whilst looking at the camera it is suggesting that she has a fun/ playful side. This may cause the reader to be more interested in the article and so will want to have a read. The fact that she is making eye contact, is again showing that she is connecting with the reader and inviting them in.

As in the double page spread article it shows that my cover star is both the same age and also the same gender as my audience it makes her more relatable. Also she says in the interview that she likes Oasis and The Smiths, there is a high chance that the readers will like these bands too and so they can again relate and thus enjoy it more and have a higher chance of buying the magazine again.

This magazine cover has similar connotations to my Indie Wave front cover.She is too half turning round, which I think brings a playfulness to it, but also mystery because you can’t see all of them. Adele is also making direct eye contact with the camera and therefore the reader. This is commonly used in the media to draw the audience in as it helps them connect. However, the way that her hand is positioned and nearly biting her finger adds a more sexual look to it, where as the picture I used is only slightly suggestive with the expression she is pulling. So, the reader might be a bit suggestive themselves, or it will attract the male readers.

Question 3

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

The publishes for my magazine will be Bauer Media Group. This company also publish Q magazine, so I feel that the two magazines could compliment each other well and could easily gain each other new readers.They also publish Kerrang! magazine which isn’t the same genre, however if someone had a wide music taste then this would widen the audience to people who didn’t have such a closed music taste.

Indie Wave will be published once a month and will be just £2.50 for each issue. Q costs £3.90, however I prefer to have it cheaper because I know that if people are willing to spend £3.90, then they will obviously be more happy to pay £2.50.

I will include a lot of advertisement in my magazine as well which means that I will get money off them, so it wont be bad to have it only cost that much.

My magazine will have numerous merchandise in order to widen the audience, and also gain more money to produce the issues.

T-shirts

Mugs

Phone cases

Apps

Question 4

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

For the front covers I noticed that it was usually centred around a big image and then everything else is fit to go with the image. As normally these images are placed in the centre, I wanted to make it a little bit different and see what else I could do with the image so I placed it to the right and had a picture of her with her body turned away so that it entices the reader because I think this makes it look more inviting and enticing. I also think this would cause the reader to be more intrigued to the double page spread.

The images that I used for my contents page were similar to the ones used in real ones to it looks more authentic, and there is a picture of a gig which relates to quite a few subjects on the contents page so it all links in. I noticed that indie magazines often make certain pictures black and white and so I did this also because I think it gives it more of an indie style and doesn’t make the magazine too bright or pop-like.

And then the photo I used for my double page spread was one of Abi doing the peace sign and I thought this gave it a more bubbly feel because she looks like she is having a fun time which I think makes the reader smile and have fun reading because they connect with the artist.

I chose the colour scheme to be pastel colours which were: a light blue, purple, yellow and grey. It seemed that these colours go really nicely together and I thought that these were more indie colours as apposed to the red that seems to be used in the usual music magazines. I didn’t use any red because I wanted mine to stand out from the others so I was challenging the typical convention, but also I found that the lighter colours made the product seem more professional. The brighter colours are a lot happier and are nicer to look at in comparison so I think this was a good choice, and it did mean that I could discover whether the red was favoured. I also thought these colours had connotations of indie, calming and fun so thought the people of that genre would automatically guess. My double page spread was mainly the light blue because I didn’t want to overuse all of the colours from the contents page.

My magazine name is Indie Wave and it seemed that most of the original names for these magazines were initials like Q and NME, so here I think I was developing it to see what could work. I came up with other ones but this was the most suitable it seemed and the feedback that I got from others proved this. As it was the first issue I wanted the logo to be quite big and noticeable so that it would catch people’s eyes when walking past. I chose to put it to the left of the page as the image was to the right and I didn’t want it to look messy or too cramped. This also meant that I was able to have it bigger without taking over the picture. I saw this placement on many other magazines and thought it looked professional and so I used it too because I liked the way it looked. I also placed it here on my contents page because this made it look more neat and it would have looked strange had I just suddenly placed it on the other page or the other side.

I noticed that they often do feature lists on the front cover of what’s inside or what's new and I liked this idea so used it in my own work. I thought it was nice to have it down at the bottom, because as well as not making it look plain it just gives that little bit more information for the reader to purchase it. I included things that I think would entice someone to buy it like competitions, interviews and posters. Now I think these feature lists about competitions are usually found in pop magazines but I knew that I could adapt it to the indie genre by making it not jump out too much and having competitions for gigs like Vampire Weekend etc. I also did a features list again on my contents page but this with more information and page numbers. I made the font bold so that it would strike out at you when you open the page and so the reader will definitely not miss them. NME

Indie Wave

It doesn’t seem that the usual indie music magazine has an editors note but especially with mine being the very first issue, and because I think it’s a nice touch, and I’ve always liked them I decided to challenge it and have one on my contents page. I think that this just helps the reader get more of an incite but also it means that the editor can keep them up to date and the reader might feel more connected which is always a good thing because you always need to connect with your reader. I think it also encourages them to write in because they know we’ll get back to them.

By signing it, it makes it more personal

For my double page spread I chose to do a Q and A with Abi as she was the cover star. I chose to do question and answer because I think this gets more to the point and I didn’t want the first issue to be too much in case we weren’t going to get many buyers. I titled it Free Spirit because that is the album that she is meant to be having out next year and this seems to be what they do, they title it with something to do with them but not just their name, sometimes a song which I think is a nice idea because it makes the article more interesting.

I picked a font which would suit the article and I thought this font was the best because I think that’s quite indie style

Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Mast head

Eye contact

Buttons

Price

Typography

Clear colour scheme

Features

Logo

Date

Suitable Image

To attract my audience, I made sure that the front cover was both appealing and intriguing to the future readers. I made the logo fairly big so that it would stand out to anybody walking by and made it clear so that people would be able to read it and remember the name.

I included a free gift of free headphones so that it gives my magazine more worth. Headphones seemed the most suitable as it’s a music magazine and this will then encourage them to listen to more music.

The colours are bright and calming colours so when someone walking past would see them, they would be drawn to it. I put the features in a different text so that it was clear that the features and specials were more important.

The price is only £2.50, and I did this because the price of magazines differ from £2 to £4 so I didn’t want to make it too expensive so that it was harder to buy but as it’s only a monthly magazine it’s a lot easier to save up.

I also included a # because this relates to Twitter and so it shows that we are up to date with what’s happening, and they’ll be able to relate to it too.

By including a button like this it makes the reader think that they are getting what they should for their money and so will mean there’s a higher chance of them buying it. They make them make it more interesting because obviously it wont be the same each month.

I used a picture where Abi was making eye contact with the camera because I feel that this gives the reader the feeling that they’re actually a part of it and it’s as if Abi is inviting them in.

Question 6

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

Adobe Photoshop was a huge help when I was editing the photos for my magazine, and I have learnt many more skills on how to use it, and now I am confident with it. I have found that it can create a much better image and can create good effects.

For the whole image I used hue/saturation so that it sharpened it and made the picture stand out more, and her features.

I decided to make her lips darker so that they stood out more, and so to do this I used the paint brush and lightly went over it in a colour similar but darker.

The way the lights were positioned caused her skin to have a weird effect and so I used the blemish tool to even it out.

I found out how to use the blur tool whilst doing this project, and so I used it for her hair because when I removed the background it left gaps and so I used this to fill the gaps in, but it meant that it would look legit and you wouldn’t be able to tell.

Question 7

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

I feel that my work has progressed a fair bit over the course of these projects. I feel that my computer skills have improved and I have learnt new skills that I can now use easily.I have also learnt about the important conventions of making a magazine which is shown through my work.

My Practice Contents Page

I feel that this is quite plain in terms of colours because the colour scheme is just black, white and red which aren’t exactly colours that pop out even though it was suitable because of the Aquinas colours. It is missing some key conventions, for example: page numbers, pull out quotes and good typography.

My Music Contents Page

The colour scheme for my final product is much more bright and stands out a lot more. They are the colours with connotations with being happy and fun. I’ve thought about the structure a lot more and included as many features and articles as I could – I even gave captions for the features which fills up the page and makes it look busy which is good for a reader. I’ve also included a lot more advertisement in this: the website and the subscription notice which is good for business.