How did you attract your audience?

These two shots are of my front cover and contents page.

I organised a focus group of some of my fellow students; Tom, Oli, Katie and Sellars. I asked them about how my magazine attracts their eye and gets them interested in my magazine. I asked them to comment on my front cover and contents page.

Sellars told me that, "The first thing that my eye is dragged towards on the cover is the dominant image of the model, the way he is dressed makes an urban feel to the magazine". I purposely chose Will as my model because of the way he was dressed, and i thought i could create an urban feel with him in the centre of the page.

Tom commented on my front cover by telling me that he likes the colour scheme as it is consistent and the sell lines are well placed. The colour scheme is something that took up a lot of my time when creating the magazine, i tried to keep it consistent as possible so it would look professional.

Oli told me that, "I like the turquoise color on the black and white colour, the text contrasts well and it is easy to read. I also like the models positioning, his head covers part of the title and this looks professional as many other magazines do this". The reason i positioned the models head so that it covers part of the title is so that it looks more professional.

Katie told me about my contents page that, "I think that the large A in the middle/top left third looks professional, it looks good as it links in with the magazine name, Alive", I purposely placed the A in the position as it is similar to the contents page from Vibe magazine as this is where i got my inspiration from.

These two shots show my double page spread, also a one half of a professional double page spread.

I tried to attract the reader with this double page spread by centring a large image of my featured artist on the left hand page. I think that the image is suitable for the text as the strap line says "On top of the world".

I have tried to attract my audience by making a similar double page spread to one from 'Classic Rock' magazine, I have went for a plain background with a similar logo to the professional one located on the right. I have used a large capital letter to start the interview as this is a professional thing to do and it indicated the start of the essay. i have also included two small pictures of the featured artist to make the page more interesting for the reader.

Technology i used while making my magazine

There was many different types of technology i used while making my magazine and i have leant many new skills while creating the magazine. Some of the technology i have used is listed bellow;

Photoshop
i used Adobe Photoshop CS4 to create my front cover of the magazine, i had never used photoshop before this so i had to learn how to use the software, i quickly learned with help from my teachers and started to crop images and play with the settings. I used photoshop to edit the images and create sell lines for my magazine.

In Design
i used Adobe In Design to create the contents page and double page spread for my magazine, i had never used this software before but i was able to use this using the skills i had learnt from using photoshop.

Camera
i had to use one of the cameras to take my shots for the magazine and for my target audience, this was fairly simple to use after i had been given basic instructions, i used the camera out and about and also in the studio.

Studio
i done my photoshoot in the studio, this was a good place to take my photos as it has quality lighting and resources, with help from my teachers i set up the lighting with the camera so the flash would work well.

Computer
i had to use the computer to produce all of my work and to produce my blog, i used the computer well for research purposes. I also had to use a cable to link the camera with the computer to get my images from the photoshoot.

Itunes
I had to use my itunes to create a soundtrack for the video i created for my target audience.

Windows Movie Maker
i had to learn how to use this software on my own, i used this to create a video for my target audience.

Blogger
i had to use blogger to create my blog for my evaluation and research/planning.

UK Tribes
i used this for help on the social groupings for my evaluation.

In what ways does your magazine use or challenge forms and conventions of real magazine products?

I started off simply by placing my main image in the centre of screen and positioning it to my liking. I then placed some grid lines on my front cover in equal spaces so the magazine would be split up into 9Th's, so is so i can position strap lines properly and effectively.

Front Cover

This is a front cover from the magazine billboard, this is the front cover that inspired me the most and for this reason i made mine similar to this. I love the way the main colour of the magazine is located in the title of the magazine and towards to the top third of the screen. Also i like the old school black and white feel of this front cover, this is why i have made mine in black and white so it has a similar effect as this front cover. In addition the models head covers some of the title this is another effect i tried to copy.

I believe that my magazine front cover is very similar to the one made by Billboard. I have kept a consistent colour scheme with not many colours being used as i think it looks more professional like this. The title of the magazine is similar to the professional one as it contains the most colour on the page and the models head is covering the title slightly. Both covers pictures are in black and white, this adds to the effect and creates an old school feel to the magazine, also both covers look like they are from the HipHop genre. From the professional front cover above mine i created my own using the inspiration i gained from the professional magazine.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target audience for my magazine is mainly males, although i am also targeting females, the magazine is more aimed at males. Since the content of the magazine is combining the two genres of music rock and HipHop the target audience has a wide base. The social groupins i will aim at are rockers and townies, since the magazine is based on the rock genre and this will appeal to them groupings. Also i will aim at urbans and blingers because of the HipHop side of the magazine.

During the making of my product i went around the college and took some photos of my target audience;

This first photo is a good one, it is located just outside a large park where a lot of teenagers like to hang out in the summer. The person in the middle, Liam L, looks emo so could fit in with the social grouping of rockers, the one on the right, Liam T, could fit in as a townie or a casual and the man on the left, Liam R, could fit with the urbans or casuals from the way he is dressed. These people are all my target audience and i think they would be interested in magazine.

This is a photo i took of Liam Raine, he could fit in with the urbans, rockers or even casual social groupings, he has mixed music tastes which is good as my magazine is a mixed genre magazine. This shot brings the words, young, free and carefree to my mind, this is him just having a good time, enjoying himself. This shot describes my target audience well.

This shot shows my target audience perfectly, they are dressed differently to show off their different styles, this image shows us the genres of rock and HipHop perfectly.

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

I have had a look and some different media companies that might distribute my magazine and i have decided that IPC Media would be a good choice.

IPC Media produces over 85 brands so they are a quality distributor, in the United Kingdom almost 27 million adults read a magazine produced by IPC Media each month, this fact proves that they are a well known and respected producer. IPC Media create well known and read magazines such as NME, which is aimed at the sort of audience i would like to aim my magazine at so this is good. Also they produce the magazines Uncut and Loaded whose target audience is also similar to mine, this assures me that IPC Media know how to produce a magazine well for my audience.

Since IPC Media produces so many different brands, over 85, this suggests they would be interested in producing my magazine.

I would use Marketforce to distribute my magazine as they are a great company that specialises in magazine and newspaper distribution within the UK, they successfully market 23% of the total magazine category, this tells me they would do the job properly and effectively.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

This is the unedited image i used for my front cover. I decided to use Will as my model for my magazine as he is the type of person i would like to aim my magazine at. He doesn't really belong to one particular social group, as he likes his HipHop music but also likes rock and indie, as rock and HipHop are my main music genres the magazine will be focused on i thought Will was a perfect choice for my model.

I used UK Tribes to help gain and understanding on the different type of social groupings and find out which ones i would like to aim my magazine at. Since my magazine is mixed genre, which the genres being starkly different, i had to use this site to gain a better understanding of the different social groups and find out which ones would become my target audience.

This is my front cover complete, as you can see it contains to different styles, i think the colours and some of the sell lines relate to the HipHop genre well, but the pose the model is doing is a rock pose so the front cover represents to very different genres of music.

The social groupings i have aimed my magazine at are; rockers, urban, blingers and townies. I have aimed at rockers and urbans as the music genres my music magazine are about relate to these different social groupings so these groupings would be interested in my magazine. I have also aimed at blingers as they are similar to the urbans and would like to the HipHop side of my magazine, i have also aimed at townies.

This is a video i have made to help show what social groupings i have targetted my magazine at, the video shows some images of what that particular type of social groupings activities, hobbies and interests are. Also the soundtrack i have made around YouTube rules correspond with the current social grouping that is currently being showed.