Magazine and contents page

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

I wanted to make my cover of my magazine to look as realistic as possible

Comparing it to a real life magazine cover i noticed some similarities and some differences

These include:

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  the pose is very similar but the shot for Lucky is on a higher angle
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  the models are both positioned in the centre of the page with the sell lines placed around them
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  the fonts are fairly similar and they both have different sizes for the importance of the story
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  the lighting and the shot distance are very similar
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  i have a two colour palette (blue and black) but the Lucky magazine has a three colour palette (white, pink and red)
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  the content isnt similar as Lucky is a fashion magazine
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  both model have no props and a similar pose
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  the costume is very different but both work well with the colour of the magazine

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

i did not target one particular audience or group because i wanted to appeal to a large audience within the college. i didnt want to be gender specific or to fit into a tribe. the range of different types of stories is quite large so it appeals to a large number of people attending college. if i was to target a particular tribe i would be closest to indie as alot of people are individuals in college.

i have tried to make my model look as friendly and welcoming as possible, she looks like this because i have made her smile, slightly tight and not too serious and intense. she looks like a typical student.

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

my audience is college students from trendies to indies. i want this magazine to be for people who are aspiring to go places within the working and education world yet still like to have fun in their spare time

4.How did you attract/ address your audience?

i tried to attract my audience by placing a yound student on the front who looked welcoming and inviting. on the contents page i placed her with a file to reinforce the fact that this is a student who is ambitious. the magazine contained so many sell lines and stories that are targetting students. this included what to do after college, during college and during college breaks. knowing i was targetting students it made it alot easier to design a college/ student magazine because i knew what to write about and what type of model to use. As i have used a wide range of stories and havent been gender specific or targetted one specific group it makes the audience wider. i believe this would make it more appealling to students.

i questionned a number of student about my product they all liked the range of sell lines and the layout although they thought that as it was only a girl on the cover it wasnt obvious it wasnt gender specific. this is something i would change if i was to redo this magazine cover.

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

every piece of equipment i used to make this magazine was new to me. i had never used photoshop, indesign, blogger, a mac and i had never taken a professional photo in a studio before but i enjoyed using it all.

i feel knowing how to use this software has definately developped my media and editting skills which will benefit me in the future.

Light setup and photo shoot plan

For my front cover i have decided to do a two light set up. I am going to have a white and blank background so that the text for my cover will be easily read. For my cover i wanted to do a front view shot so that the image would be as strong and powerful as possible. I am going to be at eye level to my subject so the picture will be more engaging to the public. I chose to have two umbrellas so that no shadow was created and the picture was as clear and striking as possible.

For my contents page I originally wanted to have three pictures, one main and two smaller but i thought it would be more effective if i just had one highlighting my main story again and this way as it would be bigger it would be more clear.

For the contents image i decided to stay with two umbrellas to give good amount of lighting but this time i have decided to stay in the same area of the staging area but i would get lower than my subjects eye line and take the photo looking up at her face. This way i made the subject look more dominant and important. As the interview is about her becoming an actress then i thought this would be a really appropriate setup to show confidence and power. For both shots i have tried to make each of them look as powerful, striking and engaging to my target audience.

Flat Plan Rationale

My main two colours for my flat plan that i have chosen is black and navy/ deep blue. I did this because they are quite elegant, bold colours that are not gender specific or attached to one college. As i have not made it college specific it could be distributed over a wider area. Navy/ deep blue is only subtly different  from black however it still does attract attention to a certain word if it is blue in colour from the black sentence. I chose to only have these two colours so its quite elegant yet makes the image stand out and makes it bold. My font that i have chosen for my title is Budmo Jiggler as i think it is appropriate for the "Aspire" concept i have chosen as it is almost like the name is "up in lights". The main title (Aspire) will be about font size 190. The other stories will vary in size depending on the importance of the story. Some of the text will also be bolded so it will stand out even further. I chose the name Aspire because at college people go because they aspire to be someone and aspire to go places, even if someone doesn't know what they want to be they still want to improve themselves and possibly get a better job e.g. actor, singer or even author etc. I thought it was an appropriate title to this genre of magazine.

I also made the decision to put the image in the centre of the front page with the stories placed around them. I believe this gives maximum attention to the image. In the contents of the front page is included a sky line above the main title (Aspire) and included large stories, smaller sell lines and an exclusive interview. I tried to cover all aspects of a college magazine including stories for during college, people from college and what to do outside of college.

My image will be of another student (Rebecca Hart), because she is a student, she will appeal to others. She will be wearing clothes with light colours, for example beige, so the text infront of image will still be easily readable. I originally was going to dress Rebecca in black but i didnt think that the text would be easily readable so i chose to go with a lighter colour. I also do not want her to be holding anything for the main image. The image will be medium close up and i will make the image nice and light.

My contents page will be the same colour palette and fonts as the cover page so it doesn't look disjointed from the front page. the page numbers will be blue to stand out and it will also included three images from other stories. The bigger the picture the more important the story.