National vs. Regional - The Conventions

I have created a national vs. regional magazine convention post in order to show my understanding of the different magazine conventions used in a regional and national magazine.

Deconstruction 3 - Bizzare vs. ArtsEast

NATIONAL VS. REGIONAL

VS.

* I created a comparison between National and regional magazines in order to gain a better understanding of the regional conventions to be sure I don't confuse the conventions when creating my regional magazine.

Deconstruction 2 - Kerrang! vs. 247

NATIONAL VS REGIONAL 

 VS.

* I created a comparison between National and regional magazines in order to gain a better understanding of the regional conventions to be sure I don't confuse the conventions when creating my regional magazine.

Deconstruction 1 - Rolling Stone vs The Crack

NATIONAL VS. REGIONAL

VS.

* I created a comparison between National and regional magazines in order to gain a better understanding of the regional conventions to be sure I don't confuse the conventions when creating my regional magazine.

Possible Locations

For the locations I have chosen, I have tried to chose natural ones in order to get the most effective ideas for an alternative magazine cover. Most alternative magazine's follow a natural geographic style explaining the choices I have gave myself.

Costume Ideas

Follow Rebecca Browne's board PITCH: Costume Ideas on Pinterest.
I have created a Pinterest with a number of costumes modelled by my favourite alternative artist, Lana Del Rey. I would describe her fashion as a vintage 40s style when she's in formal attire otherwise I would describe her casual wear as 'indie' due to the wearing of denim shirts and oversized shirts etc which is typically seen in the indie genre. Both her casual and formal wear has inspired me to make my magazine follow her fashion conventions as I have learnt in this genre that presentation of the artist is everything. I will dress my models in my magazine in a similar way in order to appeal to the alternative audience.

Make-up Inspiration

Follow Rebecca Browne's board PITCH: Make-up on Pinterest.
I created this image collection on Pinterest in order to demonstrate what type of make-up looks I will feature in my magazine. As music is heavily reliant on looks of the artist for videos etc as well as sound, the way the models will look in my magazine is vital. I used Pinterest to show what look I will be aiming for when I create my magazine. I chose these looks from what best appealed to my music magazine genre from looking at existing magazines and how artists who fit that genre represent themselves.

Genre Research

Follow Rebecca Browne's board PITCH: Genre on Pinterest.
The genre of my products will be alternative to incorporate a broader audience and cater to more people's music tastes. Alternative music magazines such as The Crack tend to have a trademark style which isn't seen in different genre magazine's, I want to incorporate that trademark. For example the musicians featured on the front covers aren't typical and tend to show a very strict and powerful poses which isn't seen a lot in big magazines such as Billboard. Alternative magazine's also have many different genre's incorporated in them due to their unique style meaning the magazine caters to a wider range of people's music taste which isn't seen in other magazine's as they tend to be strict on one music genre e.g Kerrang! which is rock music.
I am a fan of alternative music meaning I have strong knowledge of the music and what it entails so I can produce an effective music magazine for the genre.
NOTE: This genre will be shown throughout my magazine, website and billboard. 

Colour Psychology

I will refer to this colour psychology chart when creating my Media products as this will help me gain an understanding of the colours I need to attract the perfect audience. Included in this image are brands which follow this colour psychology chart in order to gain their primary audience which evidently works for them as they are all successful and still running brands. The feelings involved in the colours shown are what I will work from when creating my magazine. 

Looking at these images I am thinking about using the colour Red, Black and Grey and they are known in the alternative and indie genre and they also fit the correct personalities shown in my survey. I will use Grey for the intelligence, Red for passion youth and power, Black for drama and sophistication/class. These colours are shown in the people who took my survey which can be found HERE

I have also researched black, grey, white, brown and beige as these colours aren't shown in the images above.

Reader Profile

I have created a reader profile in order to show the different hobbies and styles my target audience enjoy. 

Facebook Audience Research

 I created a Facebook page for my audience research in order to gain a better understanding of my audience. Here are some of the questions I asked and posts I made.

Target Audience Research - Poll

I have created two polls as part of my audience research and I will place this into my Facebook group so people can vote so I can gain a better understanding of my audience.
I have created the first poll to gain understanding of them for magazine content purposes.

What's your favourite music channel?

MTV Hits

MTV Rocks

Kerrang!

4Music

Other

Please Specify:

Poll Maker

I created the second poll to understand my audience as people and to complete a reader profile for them to make sure I include content which they would appreciate in my main task and ancillary tasks.

What's your favourite shop?

Topshop/Topman

River Island

Urban Outfitters

Primark

New Look

Other

Please Specify:

Poll Maker

Audience Research

I conducted a survey in order to find out about my audience before I go ahead and create my magazine. I then created graphs from the results.
Age: 17 - 18      18 - 2

Genre:

Magazine:

Colour:

In creating this survey I managed to get a response of teenagers who like the magazine genre I wish to create. From finding the preferred colours, music etc from my survey I can make sure to include these in my magazine in order to reach my target primary audience goal. By finding out favourite soundtracks and artists I can make sure to include these on my magazine and website in order to attract this certain audience. By finding out the preferred way of listening to music I can make sure to sponsor these in my magazine an maybe even offer some sort of puff for my magazine to do with the preferred way. By finding other preferences such as Simple or Overloaded I can see what my audience most likes to see magazines/websites and I can therefore cater to their style in order to gain my target primary audience. 
This survey will help aid my understanding of my audience when I am creating my magazine and will therefore give me a better chance of reaching my primary audience and perhaps my secondary audience also. It will also keep me focused on my audience's needs and preferences.
I will research colour psychology in order to get the best colour scheme for my magazine and website to attract my desired audience.

Colour psychology can be found HERE
Video's can be found HERE

Intended Target Audience

*Note I have also created a reader profile, click HERE to view 
My target audience will range from 16-20 as this is the most likely age group to read/take interest in a music magazine, billboard and website and have an income to buy the magazine with. The audience for my products (main task and both ancillary tasks) will be both male and female from 16-20.

Initial Proposal

I have decided to create the following for my initial proposal:

The first four pages pages from an original regional magazine together with two of the following three options:

• a radio advertisement for the magazine;
• two hyperlinked pages from the magazine's website;
• a billboard advertisement for the magazine.

From the three choices I have chose to create a billboard and two hyperlinked pages for my initial proposal to go alongside the regional magazine.

This is my initial proposal mood board showing a few images of what I intend to show in my regional magazine, billboard and website. A colour scheme of black white grey and red has been chosen to fit the genre of my regional magazine which will be alternative. In the mood board I have featured a number of celebrities names within my magazine as all my images will be my own however I will still use celebrities names in order to attract my alternative audience by including specific alternative celebrities. which I intend to include in my magazine, these images will also follow the style I wish to take the photos for my magazine and billboard. I have featured a number of fonts which I will select from for my magazine, billboard and website. This also shows the bold style which I wish to portray in my magazine also showed by the colour palette choice. I also added a current regional magazine, drowned in sound, into my mood board to suggest the style I wish my website/magazine to follow.

AS REFLECTION

This is the music magazine from my AS coursework.
From my coursework I can identify the strengths and weaknesses.


Strengths of my music magazine include:

• Colour palette; I believe I had a strong colour palette which followed heavily through my magazine in order to get a continuous flow throughout making the magazine look professional. The colours I used relate to my magazine's genre of Indie/Indie Rock which follow the main colours of black and red like my magazine.
• Fonts; Again I used the same fonts throughout my magazine to keep a flow. The fonts I used also relate to my primary audience of women which would attract my audience perfectly.
• Camera shots; I chose the medium shot primarily for my magazine as this was shown the most in other magazine's which follow the same genre as my magazine. I chose a close up for my contents page in order to relate to the Indie Rock and not just the Indie which all my other images relate too. The mise en scene of the images also helped fit the genre for example the use of props shown in my front cover and the use of bright lighting throughout the images.

However there are also area's of improvement for my music magazine.

Improvements include:

• Images; My images aren't of as good quality as they could be which makes my magazine look less professional this is especially shown on my contents page. I could have also used a larger variety of images. Also no credit was given to the photographer which is a main feature in existing magazines.
• Barcode; My barcode looks unprofessional due to the large price on the side, without this price the front cover would look much more professional. The price on the barcode also makes my magazine look messy as if it my magazine doesn't follow a specific layout.
• Gaps; To fill gaps in my magazine I created a puff which doesn't look professional and makes my magazine look of a bad quality, I could have spent more time on the puffs in order to make them look of a higher standard and therefore make my magazine look a lot more professional.

From doing my AS coursework I have developed a number of technological skills. 

These skills include; Photoshop, Blogger and Prezi.

1. I improved in photoshop in comparison to my preliminary task of a college magazine as I began to get familiar with the specific tools and learn to use them to my advantage for example the Heal tool which helped get rid of any background or blemishes in my photo's which weren't meant to be there. This in effect helped my magazine look of a higher standard. By the continuing use of Photoshop my skills are still developing within it.
2. I developed in Blogger as before AS Media I had never used it before so it was all new to me. I am now able to navigate through it without any problem which makes publishing media work onto the blog quicker and easier than it was previously in AS.
3. Prezi was another piece of software which was new to me this allowed me to present my work in different ways in order to make my blog look different. Now that I can use Prezi easily I can use this to present my work quicker and better in A2 which will help add something different to my blog which may not be present in other people's.