Ambient Codes and Conventions
Find out how Ambient magazine has challenged the forms and conventions?
Representing Social groups
Read on to see who my magazine is aimed for?
Distribution of my magazine See why Hearst magazine would distribute my product?
Target audience
Did I choose the right target audience?
Attracting the audience Find out how Ambient magazine attracts their audience?
Technologies and processes
See what technologies and software is used to create ambient magazine.
Preliminary task
Evaluation
Comparing my preliminary task to my final product. See how I have improved !
edition
Target Audience Codes and Conventions Technologies Preliminary Task
Evaluation Edition
In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of a real media product?
I
have now finished my music magazine and it has turned out much better than I planned. Looking back at my magazine I must now analyse it and mention how it challenges and relates to other music magazines. Starting off with the front cover I have tried to link mine back to Q magazine as I think that Ambient magazine has the same style and genre that I wanted to achieve. You can see how I have linked it to that magazine, because I have made the beginning letter of the word ambient red. This is like Q, because they have the single letter ‘Q’ in red. I personally liked this feature that Q magazine used so instead of copying it and doing a single letter, I changed it up a bit and included a whole word. Also the fonts used are slightly different. What I mean is that Q have used a serif font where as I have used a san serif font. You
will generally find the more well known magazine are more likely going to use a serif font, as they can be hard to pull off. This is why I have used the san serif font, ‘ Eras Demi ITC ‘. Following on from that the cover lines link back to a typical music magazine, or any music magazine. The layout of the cover lines is partly simple, but different. I made it so that the writing fits around the artist’s face, this way her face is not covered up by writing and you would be able to clearly see the image. As well as that I chose to have my main font as san serif. I did this because I think san serif best fits with the indie genre. I think serif fonts can be seen as a posh font. However, I did choose to use a serif font for Bethany’s name because it stands out from the other fonts on the front cover. Furthermore, for the cover lines I have added a top 50 indie must haves. The words ‘top 50 indie’ is in much bigger writing than the words ‘must haves’. I have done this as these are the important words in the sentence and this is what will grab people’s attention. If you see the words top 50 and indie together you know you are going to get some sort of list of indie songs or albums. The next feature on the page that you would notice is the name of the new and upcoming artist ‘Bethany Baldwin’ Like the masthead I have made the beginning letter the colour red. There are small links like this that I have made in my
magazine. I have also made the font different to the rest of the cover lines. This is so it stands out from the rest as she is the main feature of the magazine. Also, using a different font can tell something about the artist. For example: as I used a calligraphy font which uses san serif it could imply that Bethany is a girly girl. Furthermore, I have also included a subscription box in the bottom
‘‘The new and upcoming artist Bethany Baldwin’’ right corner. You will notice that most music magazines include a button or banner, and in my case I have included a button. On my button, I have talked about the subscription, and what you can get from applying up for one. This is made to entice the reader into buying their magazine and setting up a subscription. For my one I mentioned that you can get 30% off for the first 6 months and you can get exclusive access for certain concert and festival tickets before they go on general sale. Following onto the next page, which is my contents page. I have stuck with the same colour scheme as I need each page in my magazine to flow and to relate to each other. Speaking of colour schemes, I think that my magazine’s colour links to indie music. When you
take an overall look of my contents page you may see the similarities between my magazine and Q magazine. For example, I have made the image of my main artist big so that the reader easily sees it. As well as adding the regulars and features, which are also found in Q magazine. Looking at my contents page the first thing that you will notice is the two main red boxes on the double page spread. The first one on the left is all about the band index. In this I have mentioned 39 bands/artists that are featured in my magazine. Each one relates to indie. Having the background for the band index such a bright bold red, helps it to grab people’s attention. The use of this means that if the reader sees a band that they like then they will want to read on. The other bold red box is a subscription box. This is like the button on the front page, but it includes a lot more information about the benefits of signing up for a subscription. This should help to persuade the reader to sign up. Moreover, the next feature that you will notice is the main image of Bethany Baldwin. Due to her rise to fame people would hopefully recognise her on the front cover and contents page and would like to carry on and read the article about her.
As well as that you may also recognise the small the numbers in the corner of the images. This is so that people see an image of a band or artist that they like then they can instantly go to that corresponding page. This is an easy way to get people to be more intrigued with your magazine. Going onto my next page, you see a giant double page image of Bethany Baldwin as well as a pull quote in the top right hand corner. This is an introductory page for my main article. This is mainly so you can get a taste of what Bethany is like before you read the article. I have used a pull quote in the top right hand corner so that it can help give people some inspiration. Generally, they are used to make people want to learn a bit more about the specific artist. Following onto my main article you will notice straight away the giant letter B behind the main text. I noticed the use of giant letters in some of Q’s article and I personally really liked it. I find that it adds something to the page and makes it more interesting to look at. Also, I think it helps the article look professional. As you can see, the title for this page is Bethany Baldwin, but I have made the beginning letter red like my masthead and the subheadings
on the contents page. Next to the article is another image of Bethany, but this one is looking to the left. I have cleverly used this image so that she is looking at the article. This means that if people look at the image first then they will be directed to the article. The whole purpose of this article is for the readers to get to know Bethany a bit more. Generally this would be the reason why magazines create articles. They are also a good way for people to buy the magazine. What I mean is that if I saw a magazine with an article of Adele or Coldplay in it I would be intrigued to read it so I would buy the magazine. On the next page my article is carried on, and next to it is another full bleed image of Bethany. Then following on from that page is a section all about Bethany’s tour. Here you will see two bold red boxes with tour dates in them. This is different to other magazines, because you don’t generally see tour dates advertised in magazines. Using a bold red helps the boxes to stand out and grab the reader’s attention. As well as tour dates, I have also written two social media links. This is another way to get my magazine known and out there and is another feature that you will commonly see in other music magazines.
Evaluation Edition
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
T
he social group that I have decided to look at is indie music. So, my music magazine is focused on getting people who enjoy listening to indie music to read my magazine. There are certain things that are distinctive about indie artists, for example: they always seem laid back and chilled. Following this,
my magazine represents indie music by using the following: Mise-en-scene (Costume, body language, facial expressions, props), colour scheme, tone of the article, the type of personality that I have given my artist etc. When doing my photoshoot, I had to think about the ways in which I could present this artist, but still relate to indie music at the same time. I wanted to keep my colour scheme not too brightly coloured but not too dull at the same time, as I need my magazine
to stand out. I chose to go with a white, black, red and blue colour scheme, even though the blue was mainly found in my images from my photoshoot. When doing the photoshoot I really liked the use of red and blue gels, and this is what you see throughout the images. I got my models to either stand or sit. The majority of the photos were taken with them sitting in a vintage chair. The use of them sitting down can help give that cool and relaxed vibe that I was looking for. Also the vintage chair links to the theme of Ambient magazine as indie music has a connection with vintage styled clothing, home-ware, etc. Following onto my choice of clothing I didn’t want to use any bright coloured clothing, as I was using gels and the colours would mainly come from them. So, I stuck mainly with a black and white colour scheme, however I did throw on the occasional denim jacket as I think to get that indie vibe you need a bit of denim. Also, the use of having white coloured clothing is that the light from the blue and red gels partly reflects of the item of clothing, giving an even colour scheme throughout the image. The use of black clothing gives it an edgy darker feel. You will notice that I also used denim jackets and a leather jacket. I personally think that denim jackets really do help give that indie music vibe that I need because they are a statement piece of clothing that I think most people will think relates to indie.
Leather jackets can help to give an edgy/ rock vibe. Furthermore, the body language for my magazine is quite serious faced. By this there is not much or barely any smiling in my photos. Doing so does not mean that I want my magazine not be happy, but I am wanting it
‘‘I wanted Bethany to come across as a down to earth and homely girl’’ to be taken seriously and, I want it to stand out and be unique. Looking through other magazines you will notice that the majority of the celebrities and singers are not smiling. This may be because it helps to connect the reader a bit more easily. Following onto my interview I wanted my new upcoming artist to be quite the one into fashion, but also stay cool and relaxed at the same time. I got her to wear boyfriend jeans, a clean cut white blouse, and heels. I think that this look shows that she is professional, but still cool at the same time. When writing my interview, I wanted Bethany to come across as a down to earth and homely girl. I also mentioned that she was a shy girl in school and I wanted to emphasis on this, because anything is possible if you put your mind to it and that is exactly what I wanted to show within Bethany.
What kind of institution might distribute your media production and why?
T
he type of institution that might want to distribute my music magazine is Hearst magazines UK. Hearst magazine has distributed other well-known magazines such as: Cosmopolitan, Women’s Health, and Runner’s World. Each of which are different to one another and all are popular for their own specific audiences. I think that this magazine company would look to see the distribution of my music magazine as an opportunity to branch out into this area as they are yet to distribute any type of music based magazine. Hearst could therefore bring in more money by selling my magazine and branch out into another sphere of distribution. This would happen because, as they don’t have a similar magazine to mine people will notice my unique magazine and will want to pick it up and read it. Also, as their other magazines have been successful, people would hopefully trust Ambient magazine to be good and would want to buy it. The reason why I chose Hearst magazines is because for now they do not sell any type of music magazines. This means that there is a gap in the company for my indie magazine to fit into. If a music magazine did already exist then I would not choose it because, overall both magazines would have similar content. People would generally favour
the better music magazine, which means that less profit or even any profit would be made for the least favoured magazine. This would not benefit the magazine company or the actual magazine. Furthermore, if Hearst magazines chose to distribute my magazine then they would be bringing in a wider audience for their company. What I mean by this is that their magazines at the moment are aimed at a different target audience to mine so distributing my magazine would help their company hugely and they themselves would get a wider target audience from this. Another reason why this company would be interested in my magazine is because of market shares. As my magazine is new to the industry it is more likely to get a higher percentage of market shares. This is because it would be in a growing market which means new people
would be seeing my magazine and becoming interested in it. It would be harder in a mature market because in order to get a good market share you would have to take customers away from other competitors, which is expensive as it is a challenge to influence and change customers buying habits. Moreover, different ways that they could advertise my magazine and get it out there could be that if they have an online website then they could display it on their. Also, it could be advertised on any social media pages that they have for example: Instagram or Facebook. And as well as that to help entice their audience in they can make the first issue have a discount. For example: 45% of the first issue.
Evaluation Edition
W
hen you start to produce your music magazine you must start off by thinking who your target audience will be and base it around that demographic. This is very important as everything you do for your magazine will be done to entice readers, and you would want to aim for that certain age group, social class,
gender etc. Before producing my magazine I thought about what type of readers I want to reach for. I decided to aim for those of the age between 15 and 35. I decided to choose this age range as my music would be most commonly known around this age range. I’m not saying that older people may not know the bands featured in my magazine, but they are more likely to be popular with people who are younger. For example:
I feature the bands Bastille, The 1975, and Imagine Dragons and these bands are more commonly associated with younger aged people. Another reason why I chose that age range was because of the content in the magazine and what I offer. I emphasise this by the features and things within my magazine which are aimed toward younger people to get them to read my magazine. For example: I mention that if you sign up for
Who would be the audience for your media product? the subscription then you can get exclusive access to concert and festival tickets before they go on general sale. I personally think that younger people aged between 15 and 35 are more likely to go to festivals and concerts compared to those with an older age. Also, the festivals and concerts would be ones that link to the type of music that I feature, so just like the first point, younger people would be interested in the type of music played at these events. Following age, I would also consider what gender I would want my magazine to focus on. My magazine is not gender specific, as it is based on an androgynous audience. I chose to do this as it would have a wider audience which then means that I am more likely going to get more readers for my magazine. Furthermore, social class can also play an important part for your magazine. For my magazine, I chose to aim for those of a middle and lower class, as I think that they will enjoy my magazine the most. The reason why I think this is because, when you think of upper class you think that they would listen to the traditional styles of music like classical, jazz and possibly soul, which are styles that do not feature in my magazine. Even though this may be stereotypical, often or not this can be true. When you think of middle and lower class you think of R&B, indie, pop, rock etc. And that is the type of style that is featured in my magazine (indie/
pop/rock). As well as that upper class are more likely going to buy magazines which are a bit pricier and well known. As mine is neither I aimed for the lower/ middle class as they would be
‘‘I decided to aim for those of the age between 15 and 35’’ interested more in my magazine as an overall compared to upper class. Following from social class, what the audience like to do hobbies wise is also something to consider. My magazine likes to focus on those who love a good concert and festival. So, the intention is to appeal to people who do like that format. Within it I mentioned that if you sign up for the subscription, then you would have exclusive access to concert and festival tickets before they go
on general sale. This means you can get ahead and get good seats for the concerts that you know will be difficult to get tickets for. I would hope that this would be an incentive for people who love concerts/music festivals to sign up for the subscription and read my magazine. I also advertised Bethany Baldwin’s tour, which comes under concerts. Moreover, psychographics counts towards my audience. Psychographics is the classification of people per their attitudes and aspirations. So, knowing that my audience would want those who are influenced by music to create and write their own music. Also, I hope they would get inspiration from my magazine to go out and do the things that they aspire to do in music. Whether that is writing performing or producing. People would hopefully get this from reading the interviews and seeing what different artists say about their career.
Evaluation Edition
How did you attract/address your audience?
T
here are multiple different aspects to my magazine which help it attract my target audience. Starting off with the front cover, I have tried to make it look as unique and different as possible. As well as trying to make it stand out. The main image should help tie people into looking at my magazine, because it uses direct address. This can be a very useful tip to getting people to look at the magazine as it can almost make the person think that they should look in this magazine. Following on from the main image, I have tried to make my masthead stand out as well. The use of having a red bold
colour against the colour white will help it catch people’s attention and should get them to look at the magazine and read it. Following on from that, the cover lines have been put in the colour red so that they correspond with the colour scheme, but most importantly that they stand out from the page. Originally, they were going to be white, but I thought that it blended in too much with the short information underneath, so I decided to make them red and stand out more. Making the band/ artist names stand out means that the reader will easily see them, and in my case this would be those who are aged between 15
and 35. Carrying on from what I said, as they are red and bold the reader is more likely to see a band that they like, therefore they will pick up on it and look at the magazine. Moreover, the next page I have carried on with the same colour scheme as I need my pages to link. One of the first things that the reader will notice is the subscription box. This is because it has a bold red background, and it stands out from most of the features on the page. Making the audience look at this first will help encourage them to buy the magazine and sign up for the subscription. This is because I have mentioned that you can get
30% off for the first 6 months, and that you can get exclusive access to concert tickets before they go on general sale. As well as that, when you look at the page your eyes are drawn to the biggest photo of Bethany Baldwin. The use of this is that if you are interested in that type of music then the audience may be intrigued to read on more. Also, the direct address helps. Following on from my contents page, is the main article. Instantly you notice the giant letter ‘B’ behind the interview. This will catch the readers eye and should get them intrigued to read on. Additionally, I have intentionally used the picture on the right as it seems as if Bethany is looking at the text, and doing this should bring the readers eye back to the interview when they look at this image. Going onto the final page you will notice that there are two red boxes. Both boxes advertise Bethany’s tour dates. I have mentioned before that the red
boxes helps to stand the text out from the page and instantly makes the reader look at them. I have also mentioned some social media links at the bottom of the page. This would help advertise my magazine and get more people to recognise and be intrigued to read my magazine. Lastly, the colour scheme links to the gratifications theory as I have used warm and cool tones together in my images and as these are complimentary colours they are pleasing on the eye. And as well as that I have used social media to help attract my audience. I created a Snapchat and twitter account. These social media accounts enable me to communicate with those who enjoy my magazine. I am able to show behind the scenes of the making of my magazine as well as new updates or news.
Evaluation Edition
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
W
hen making my magazine, I have used different equipment and software that have helped me to create my magazine, as well as the different research tasks and planning that went along with it. Before I even started to make my magazine the first thing that I did was to create my blog. I had never produced a blog before so this was all new to me. For the first few months I used my blog to upload all the work that I needed for my research section. Within this it included having to use Power Point. For this I was using simple applications as I only needed it for analysing certain parts of a magazine. Around November time I started on the next two sections of my blog, which was planning and drafting. Within these sections I started to use applications such as: Prezi, Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and Adobe InDesign. Prezi was used so I could create different PowerPoints. I could have done this on PowerPoint, but I wanted my work to have a
bit more range in it application wise. Using Photoshop for the first time was quite challenging and I only used Photoshop to create a contact sheet. I did not need to alter or change my photos in any way, but at the same time I did not think that they would have needed to be changed anyway. Following Photoshop, I also had to use Adobe Premiere Pro. This application allowed me to create videos. I used this for the following: Behind the scenes and my mood board. When making my behind the scenes I had a whole bunch of images as my photoshoot lasted around a couple hours and the camera took a photo every 10 seconds. Premier really helped as I could delete the images that I did not want quickly, whether that was in a big group or individual images. Unfortunately, I was not able to speed up the video, however I could get some music playing in the background. This was very easy to do as I got the music that I wanted up on YouTube and then I copied the link into YouTube converter. This
then enabled me to save the song to my documents and then open it up in premier. The song was too long for my actual video so premier allowed me to cut it short so that the music would finish at the same time as the images. The music that I chose was ‘Pumped up Kicks’ by Foster the People. As my magazine is an indie magazine, it made sense to use indie music. If I did not use music in my behind the scenes then it would have been a bit boring to watch. Following my behind the scenes I also created a mood board. This mood board included a series of images that all related to my theme. These images were all taken from Google and I imported them into Premier. I did this by going to file, import, and then clicking on the images that I wanted and importing them into Premier. Once all my images were in I could then set them out in the order that I wanted them. Like my behind the scenes I also chose to add music to my mood board, however I chose a different song. The indie band that I chose was The 1975, and the song was
‘Chocolate’. This was one of their most popular well known songs so it made sense to use it. Just like before I went to YouTube got the link of the song I wanted and put it into YouTube converter. This then allowed me to download the song and import it into Premier. After finishing the video I then uploaded it using YouTube so that people can watch it on my blog. The whole process for these two tasks was very simple to complete. The next application that I used was Adobe InDesign. This enabled me to draft and finalise my music magazine. When I opened the program up for the first time I inserted 9 pages. This allowed me to create a front cover, a contents page, and an article. Throughout the process of my magazine I added other pages such as: and introductory page for my article and a tours page. When using the software, there were specific things that I used on almost every page.
The first thing was that I made sure that for every page there was three columns. This made my work look organized, and it helps your magazine look more professional. Also as I was writing my main text on a page e.g. contents and article page, I had to make sure that it was size 11 and font Book Antiqua. It is crucial that the fonts and sizes match up for specific areas. As well as that I also had to make sure that I had a similar colour scheme going through the magazine. This
is so that it flows and makes the reader want to carry on reading. Furthermore, before I made my
‘‘The camera I used was a Canon 5 50D’’ magazine I had to complete my photoshoot. This entailed setting up all the equipment needed for the photoshoot. This included: lighting, the backdrop, and gels which I would put in when doing my photoshoot. The most important part of the photoshoot was the camera. A digital camera is very helpful in the sense for a photoshoot, because you can easily take the photo and see whether it is blurry or just not a good photo, and instantly you can see whether you need to try a different angle or take the photo again. The camera that I used was a Canon 5 50D.
Evaluation Edition
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to the full product?
W
hen I look back at my preliminary magazine and compare it to my final magazine, I can easily see how much I have improved style and technique wise. When I had to make the magazine, I did not get given much time to plan. I had one lesson to take photos and one lesson to plan my overall layout of the magazine. Comparing this to my actual photoshoot where I had time to plan what I wanted my model to wear, clothes and makeup wise, as well as the poses, I did not have time to do any of that so I had to come up with the ideas almost instantly. This was so I could get the magazine finished as soon as possible. Having to work this quickly under pressure meant that the photos may have not been as good quality or are not at a preferred angle as we were rushed for time. Even though I did get time to sketch out an overall idea, being new to the process I may have found it harder than
other people who have taken media studies before. Saying that when I had taken all the photos I noticed that some were a bit blurry and at the wrong angle so I had to separate the good from bad. Overall, I thought that the pictures turned out quite well. After taking all the photos that I needed and sketching out a plan I could then start to make the preliminary magazine. I used the software Adobe InDesign, and as this was my first time using this software it was difficult and took me a while to understand. There were multiple icons that meant many things, and still now I don’t know what all of them do, however using adobe InDesign for my preliminary magazine helped a huge amount. It was almost like a test run so that when the time came to make my final magazine I was used to the programme, and I understood the necessary icons. Going through the process I learnt what more icons could do so I could make my final magazine the best I could. When making my preliminary magazine I started off with the front cover, whereas for my final magazine I
began with the contents. This was so that I could plan what would be on each page, and made making the rest of the magazine a lot easier. This was because on the contents page you mention what page everything will be on, so you can easily create the pages, and put the corresponding page number at the bottom. Next, I imported an image from my photoshoot to act as my front cover photo. This was an image of a random school boy. The image that we took was taken in a matter of minutes. Comparing this to my final magazine, shows that for my photoshoot I had the time to try out different angles and distances so that I could get the exact image that works for the page. We can see how time can really help to perfect a magazine in this process. Once I added the image I then chose to write some cover lines. These were very simple and are not as good compared to my music magazine. For the preliminary I chose a serif font and it was in the colour white. You can easily see that white was not a good choice of colour because the cover lines to not stand out from the page. In contrast for my final magazine, the cover lines were in white and red. The artists name was in red and the information was in white. The red pops out from the page, and this is what would grab people’s attention. Furthermore, the colour scheme that I chose was not very specific. The front
cover did not match my contents page. By which I mean that my front cover is white/ grey with white cover lines, and my contents page is completely black with a white coloured front. The use of a black background does not compliment the magazine at all so in my mind that was a very bad decision. Also, you can just about read the cover lines on the front whereas on the contents you can easily read them due to it being white against a black background. On the other hand for my final magazine the colour scheme flowed throughout the magazine. This was a red, black and white colour scheme with hints of blue. The vibrant red stood out from the white and black, and along with the contrast of the blue, it really helped to make the pages pop with colour. In my mind, I think that this colour scheme compliments
can easily see that there is a huge comparison. And this was mainly being able to plan and prepare for my final magazine. There was three stages for the making of my music magazine. These were: Research, planning and drafting. For research I had to look at different magazines that related to my music genre and analyse them. There were other tasks such as doing a survey and equipment research. Doing so enabled me to see what really makes a music magazine great. For the preliminary task I did
‘‘The colour scheme compliments the indie vibe that I was striving for’’ the indie vibe that I was striving for. For the preliminary magazine I only completed a front cover and a contents page, whereas for my final I completed a front cover, contents page, introductory article page, article page (X2 double page) and a tours page. When seeing the workload that had been completed for the final magazine, you can see how time is important and with minimum time you are unable to create a high quality product. Looking at both magazines you
not do this. We did not have the time to research different school magazines so I had to think off the top of my head what I think would make a good magazine. As I mentioned before, I was new to this process so I found it difficult. Following onto planning, for this section we had to complete an article, cover lines, and box out copy, etc. This main section was so I could plan what I would write in my magazine. Having time to do this meant I could write a good quality article, as well as
catchy cover lines and bold box out copies. For the preliminary task, the only planning that we done was a sketch. This sketch was drawn in a one hour lesson, whereas for the final magazine I had plenty of time to take my time and draw the sketches out. Lastly, the next stage was drafting. For this I have my chosen images, first draft and audience feedback. Having this stage meant that I could pick out the top 10 best images from my photoshoot, as well as creating my first draft and having feedback. The feedback enabled me to see what aspects of my magazine were the worst and the best, so that when it came to finalising my magazine it could be the best it possibly could. Due to limited time I could not get feedback for the preliminary task, which meant I was unable to see what other people thought of my magazine. As an overall view looking back at my preliminary magazine I think that I have improved so much in the process and everything that I did in my preliminary magazine enabled me to make my final magazine much better. The fact of having an increase focus on the research, planning and drafting stages enabled me to create a high quality magazine. Furthermore, the use of discussions in lesson time also helped to understand the work that needed to be completed.