'Wasp' - by Andrea Arnold

The mise en scene shows that this short film is set on a council estate, with the characters wearing grim, dirty clothes which show how poor they are as a family. The close up shots of the young girls faces show how desperate they are for food which highlights how poor they are.

The film maker is trying to make us emphasis with the main character as it may be her own fault that she has all these children but by her repeating the line 'it's my first night out in ages' shows us that she never goes out and never enjoys herself, she spends all her time trying to entertain her children. Due to her having a 'special' dance with her children, and having their art work all around the kitchen really emphasises how much love and care she has for them. By doing this the director makes sure that we are not quick to judge her.

It is a very effective film as it really shows the lives of mothers with lots of children and how difficult it is to survive with only a short amount of money. The cutaway edits during the short film really show how people are living in poverty, the close ups of the door frames were the paint is peeling of the walls, and the close ups of the girls faces show how dirty they are.

'The Ganzfeld Procedure' - by Keith McCarthy

http://www.youtube.com/futureshorts?has_verified=1#p/u/14/1a5XOQ5dE0E

The short film starts with the mise en scene showing us that it is set in an experiment setting with a voice-over explaining the procedure; therefore giving us a better understanding of what's going on. As the music starts we can see that its going to be a fun/enjoyable journey as the music is upbeat and nice.

We get what look like memories or old tape recordings of the females past as a young girl, as they are slightly unclear and miss sections out it shows that her memory is slightly hazing which adds realism to the film as when your young you don't remember everything. As lots of low angle shots are used it shows they are point of view shots looking up at her relatives as a young girl which suggests that it is her memories of the past. Due to there being lots of colours suggests that she is still young and seeing things all bright and cheerful. It also suggests how difficult it is for her to try and remember the past, its all blurry and uncertain. The use of the non-diegetic sounds of 'swishing' show that time has pasted.

One of my favourite shots is the close up shot of her bare skinned against a black background, with a slight hint of pink lip gloss on and smoking a cigarette (blowing out smoke), its effective as she is sucking it in not blowing it out which shows that the effects have been reversed and creates a sense of time going backwards.

Another shot i feel that is affective is the close up shot of her drinking wine from a wine glass and the light shinning on her face and the glass, as as we have seen her childhood we are now experiencing what she does as an adult and the dangers of growing up and not being vulnerable and naive. Over these few different clips of her drinking there is a sinister/dark sound effect which emphasises the idea of as you grow up your not safe any more.

The quick cuts between different memories creates an effective and realistic view of what's going on in her head and how quick other thoughts/memories take over other ones, it creates a very powerful sense of us as the viewers understanding what she is going through. As the memories are of normal things, like putting lipstick on as a young child it makes it target a large amount of people and draws them in as it reminds us of out childhoods.

I feel that the genre of this short film is a romantic mock documentary as we get flashbacks of the girls life and how she meets the other man - it follows her through her journey. The target audience for this short film would be a possible age of 16-30 as its unique and fun and shows memories that most people have experienced making it add realism.

Overall i feel this short film is very unique and effective by the use of flashbacks and makes me think that flashbacks would be a good effect to use in my short film as i want viewers to feel how i did towards 'The Ganzfeld Procedure' in my short film.

Short Films Research

'About a girl' by Brian Percival
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL2z8Qzn1dc&feature=related

The short film starts with the title of the film being written like a text message with the diegetic sounds of the keys being typed in, which straight away shows its going to be about young people and giving a target audience of 13-17.

The opening shot is a wide shot of a dark figure standing in a field singing a well known song, as we can't see the person very well it suggests that what we are about to see could be relevant to a lot of people - it's happening all the time.

A jump cut is then used to show the same girl now talking directly to the camera, it's a close up shot and as the camera is not smooth we can see that a hand-held camera was used, which suggests we are walking along beside her listening to her story making it personal. From this we can see that the genre is a documentary of her everyday life. We hear about all the violence and her dreams which highlights how young she is as she still believes she can be a famous singer, which makes the ending even more shocking.

The mise en scene of her outfit shows that she is from the lower class and poor by the dirty coat, jeans, plastic bag and the way that she talks, the mise en scene of her house also supports this. As she talks really fast and sue to her Manchester accent it can be quite difficult to understand her sometimes but the main issue comes at the end when she drops the plastic bag into the canal after carrying it around with her throughout the film. This arouses our curiosity as we wonder what is in this bag as no attention has been brought to it throughout the film.

We finally see what is in the bag by a mid low angle shot which reveals a baby, this shocked me as a viewer as the film shows how young and naive she is yet she has had a baby at the age of 13, this dramatic twist made me realise that this is happening all the time all over the world and has really affected me. Considering that the girl shows no emotion towards it as she just walks off as if it happens all the time.

This short film has really made me think about serious issues that are going on all the time all over the world and nobody is doing anything about them. Which makes me start to think about ideas for my short film and ways in which my short film will have the same affect on people the way that 'About a girl' had on me.

A2

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

I have learnt a great deal about technologies from constructing my music magazine, as at the start I was very unsure about how to use Photoshop therefore on my school magazine stuck with the very basic tools and didn't go any further. Having had the opportunity to go to a Photoshop workshop I learnt how to do things I had no idea you could do on a program on the computer, for example completely distorting somebodies face/body, making fonts stand out with special effects and merging pictures together. After my tutorial at the workshop I felt much more comfortable using the complex program and started fiddling around with all the different tools and effects to see what they did. I feel more confident with layering things, adding effects like 'outer glow' 'inner glow' and 'strokes', merging images together, using the magic wand tool to outline an image and crop it so its the right size and doesn't contain any empty space and just generally arranging images and text together. All of which helped me greatly in the construction of my magazine.
I have also learnt how to blog effectively, at the start I wasn't too sure how to do it but after awhile I got the hang of it, and now find it a very useful skill to have as I can now create a blog for my own purpose.
Everyone knows how to use a camera but I found that my skills were challenged when I went to take photos for my feature as I had to think really hard about the type of shots I wanted and had to think how to frame them effectively. I had to make sure that the correct mise en scene represented DJing well, for example I had to make sure that the DJ decks were in the shot to correspond with the text and have him looking at the camera so we get to see what he actually looks like.

How did you attract/address your audience?

To help me in the process of attracting and addressing my audience, the readership survey (below) helped me greatly in understanding what this specific target audience want to read about; therefore I took on their feedback and constructed my magazine.
The front cover is the page that has to be the most effective as this is the first thing your audience sees; therefore it has to look effective and different. The primary image attracts the audience as he is a 17 year old male himself which is my average target audience age; therefore the audience can relate to him. He is drumming and looks focused on it, this was one piece of criteria that was revealed in my readership survey. They are interested in new and upcoming bands and the creativity of drummers.
I choose the colour pink for my masthead as it matches with the drums, this may be a risk as pink is usually a feminine colour; therefore turning some males off, but NME used pink headings for one of their issues and it was a great success. I thought that the title 'noise' would be appropriate and appeal to my target audience as the reader can straight away tell that this is going to be a music magazine and 16-19 year olds like noisy music. Noise also can be considered as 'information' which my magazine is trying to give out about new drummers and music. I choose to use the colour scheme of pink and green. Firstly all the sell lines were in pink and I asked a friend (17 year old male) what he thought and he said it looked quite 'feminine' which wasn't my intended audience; therefore I made some of the sell lines green and kept some pink giving it a more masculine appeal.
From the feedback I found out that my audience are very interested in who the top bands are, funny photos, new and upcoming bands and what happens at gigs that the public aren't allowed to attend. This helped me to generate my sell lines. As the survey revealed that the audience are particularly interested in the exclusive gigs I made sure that they had a chance to attend them, I chose to make the '100' stand out to show that they can actually attend them attracting the audience. For the mode of address I have chosen words like 'exclusive' and 'restricted' to show that my readers are lucky to find out about this information as it is selective so they must buy this magazine as they won't find this information anywhere else. To address my audience I have chosen the word 'hard' to describe 'Lucas Greenwood' and 'DJ Woody' as it is a word that my target audience commonly use to describe good/talented artists therefore they can relate to this word, the magazine and feel they are inclusive.
I added a price of £2.90 which I think is a good price for a monthly magazine, i also asked my target population of 16-19 year old males and they agreed with this. As this age group doesn't have a lot of money it seems a fair price.
For the contents page I continued on with the same colour scheme and house style to make the whole magazine coherent and assessable, I made the index big therefore it allows browsing of the magazine easier and the readers can flick to the pages which most interest them, this appeals to the audience as they can find things quicker and don't have to read the whole magazine as some bits may not interest them. I went with a DJing theme hence the images so that it relates to the feature.
For the feature I focused on DJing as I had covered all of the other criteria that was found from my readership survey, it is an interview with a top DJ in London. I included questions that my readers would want to know about i.e 'how he started' as they may be interested in starting DJing and don't know where to begin, this gives them a helping hand; therefore attracting them.
In conclusion I feel I have targeted my audience well with my magazine as there are things in it that are screaming out to the target audience to buy it, it enables the reader to get 'exclusive' access to the biggest gigs, shows the 'restricted' photos from the NME awards and an 'exclusive' interview with a well known DJ.

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

IPC media is one of the United Kingdoms leading consumer magazine and digital publishers. It was created in 1963 as International Publishing Company. They publish over 80 different magazines that are of various genres at attract all audiences. They publish NME music magazine which is the most similar to my music magazine; therefore making them a possibility for publishing my music magazine. As they specialise in different genres of music this would also be ideal as my magazine covers two main genres. It is also convenient as it is based in the United Kingdom therefore easily assessable.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target audience for my media product are males between the ages of 16 and 19 who have a particular interest in drumming (rock music), the genre of dub step and DJing. Males who are very enthusiastic about their music and keen to know what is new and upcoming. Aiming and targeting mainly at this group of people I'm sure it will also attract others who will feel inclusive by the choice of language used and also people who want to know more about these types of music. Older people who have a keen interest in the issues covered in the magazine may see it and think 'that looks interesting' therefore bringing in a larger reader profile. Younger people who aren't sure what type of music they like yet may also read it and if they see older people reading it may make them want to buy it to seem older and cooler. Females are not my target audience but if they like what they see i.e find the artist on the cover attractive they may also buy it. Even though it is mainly targeted at one social group it will also attract others.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents the social group of teenage boys (16-19) who are very into their music. The ones who are always listening to their Ipods on the bus, wearing jeans, T-shirts, a checkered shirt and vans. They are presented as talented, creative and slightly grungy. As my front cover shows there is a boy in the clothes described above; therefore the readers can feel inclusive with the dress codes and can relate to them as they are similar, this will also draw in more readers. By having the artist not looking at the camera shows that he is very interested in his music, talented as he has the skill to drum, creative as he would have had to make up a rhythm and grungy as he looks slightly messy and worn. It also represents them as stylish due to their modern dress codes, this is also reflected in the masthead as it has style and is slightly different to normal mastheads, making it edgy. The language and lexical codes used makes it represent this social group as stereotypical teenagers who like to make up words that are different, even though my magazine isn't aimed at all teenagers other teenagers may feel inclusive in this and also may want to read it even though they don't generally fit in with my target audiences dress sense and ideas increasing the reader profile.

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

My media product challenges the forms and conventions of real media products as my front cover has one primary image only, other music magazines have one main image and lots of other secondary images scattered around the page to show whats being featured in the magazine. I choose to stick to one image as it gets the central focus, by doing this it also makes it less cluttered and messy which is how other music magazines are presented. This way gives a clean and simple image. I choose to keep the text to the sides of the image so the image stands out and has nothing blocking its way, whereas most magazines have text at the center of the page, over the image. Once again this makes it look cluttered and messy; therefore I choose a different approach to make it presented in a different way. Most music magazine front covers have a close up shot of the band/artist so they draw you in to buy it as they are on the cover, however I have choose a long shot to show that the drumming aspect is more important as the artist is an upcoming drummer so not many people will know him. One of the biggest forms and conventions I have challenged is that magazines in general are constructed by a large group of people who all work on separate areas, however I have made this all on my own, images, texts and designs without the help of a large team of people.
I have also used and developed forms and conventions of real media products by having a primary image as the main focus, different text seizes making some stand out more than others, having a bar code which adds realism and making the price and date clear under the masthead. I have chosen to use a limited range of colours to add to the coherency of the page and throughout my magazine so that it all links together effectively especially using the same masthead on the contents page and feature. Similar to NME's masthead I have used a poignant colour which stands out so when you see it on a magazine rack it's easy to spot. I have developed the normal forms and conventions of a masthead by not having it in one colour to stand out from the background, instead I have made it the same colour as the background but made it have an 'outer glow' of pink instead which I feel makes it stand out more. I have used the same positioning for my masthead as it is on other music magazines; therefore using the forms and conventions of real media products also similar size making it stand out.
By doing all these things I have used, developed and challenged forms and conventions of real media products.

Audiance Feedback

I showed my semi-finalised version of my magazine to the art director of MOJO music magazine (Mark Wagstaff) who was impressed, he said that he liked the coherency and the way the colours worked well together. Using only three colours made it look similar to magazines on the market, it looks simple and uncluttered. He said that my front cover looked 'professional' and works well as a front cover to draw in the implied audience, he was very interested in the masthead as he said it was 'different' yet 'stylish'. As I had not completely finished my contents page when he looked at my magazine, U wasn't yet sure what I should do with some empty space; so I asked him for any advice. He suggested that I should move some of the images around, filling the space. We both agreed this looked better and made it look like more of a boys' magazine, which is my intended audience. In conclusion he said that it targeted my target audience very well, by the choice of colours, images and straplines.
I also decided to show my magazine to a good friend of mine who is a 17 year old male, who my magazine is aimed at. He liked the idea that a new upcoming drummer was on the front as he is very interested in drumming and would like to know more about it; therefore making him want to buy the magazine. He liked that it wasn't cluttered and it was easy to find the pages which you want to read about, He said it looked 'interesting' and 'worth the price' he also said that the straplines are 'worth reading' and liked that my feature was on a DJ artist as he is very interested in how DJ's do what they do. In conclusion, he said that he would buy my magazine if he saw it on a magazine rack in the shop as it stands out and looks interesting; therefore targeting my target audience.

Magazine Feature - Final

After altering a few things I came to my final copy. I made the pictures stand out more by adding the special effect of 'stroke' and positioned the text so there wasn't any big chunks of white unused space. From my plan I wanted to include a 'pull quote' and place it in the middle of the right hand page in a big pink circle, but getting to this stage I realised I had no room left; therefore I placed it on top of some empty black space on the bottom photo, in a sort of 'bleed' effect. This ended up turning out perfect as it contributes to the 'house style' of having pink on black; therefore making it a consistent brand image. Finally I moved the images very slightly and then it was finished.
I feel that my feature would appeal to my target audience as it is all on DJing which is something that I found from the survey that they find very interesting, the images are very inviting and suggest that anyone can have a go at being a DJ. They also show what it's actually like to be DJing for a load of people, people can image what it's like but this feature actually shows you. The layout is effective as it is simple and uncluttered which the survey told me that they like and the colour scheme is coherent throughout the magazine. The questions used in the text are questions that people who are interested in DJing actually want to know i.e. 'When you first started getting interest in DJing, what did you start doing?' as they may be thinking 'I like DJing but I don't know how to get into the business' this interview helps you in doing that. I know this as a friend of mine has just started getting into DJing and I asked him what kind of questions he would like to know.

Magazine Feature - Step 3

After realising that the 'columns' made it look to cluttered which wouldn't appeal to the audience as from the survey I found that my target audience prefer it uncluttered; it had to be changed. The layout also had to be considered here so I separated out the text and added a few more pictures to keep to my simple and uncluttered theme. I added an image of what you can see from the DJ box which would appeal to the target audience as they get a special insight into what it's actually like to be a DJ as your not actually allowed in there. I also added an image of the dance floor area from the V.I.P section so the readers can get a feel to how it must feel being in there.

Magazine Feature - Step 2

After completing the first step I had to start thinking about were the text of my interview was going to be placed. I decided on the idea of 'columns' which is widely used for features as it is consistent and organised into readable blocks of text. I decided on keeping the text black to fit with the idea that the images are mainly black and white giving a classic, stylish and elegant look, suggesting the lifestyle of the people in the club. The questions are in bold so the difference can be easily established between the answer and the question and it also breaks up the text into easier chunks. I added two more pictures of the DJ in work also to break up the text and make it look like real features in magazines with lots of images.

Magazine Feature - Step 1

The final step in making my music magazine was to create the feature, from the survey I knew that it was going to be on DJing. Luckily for me my friend is good friends with one; therefore she took me along to meet him, interview him and take lots of photos of him in action. We went along to one of his busy DJing slots on Thursday night at Embassy nightclub in London, were he showed me what he does and I got to have a good chat with him. He seemed perfect for my feature and would definitely appeal to my target audience.
The construction was the next thing, I continued on with the 'house style' of having the same masthead from the front cover on the main pages and placed it like I did on the contents page in the top left hand corner. I also continued on with the same coherency and colour scheme throughout. I made the 'slug' black so it would stand out against the white background as this is one of the things that hooks the reader into the feature article. I knew from the planning stage that I wanted an inviting, fun and effective image of the DJ under the masthead; therefore I did this. I feel that this image would appeal to the target audience as he is pointing at the reader inviting them in to hear his story and suggesting that anyone can give it ago. In the final part of this step I put the DJ's name in a black box and his name in Pink to stand out, this also looks similar to the masthead; therefore following the 'house style'.

Magazine Feature - Planning

This is the planning for the feature of my music magazine on DJing. I positioned everything were I wanted it and allocated the right amount of space for my photos. I kept with the 'house style' of the masthead and made sure that was clearly in the top left hand corner like other magazines, as it creates a familiar, recognisable and consistent brand image. I made sure that the 'slug' was clear to hook the reader into the feature article and kept with the same coherency and colour scheme throughout the magazine. I wasn't yet sure what pictures were going to go where but I was certain the picture under the title was going to be a friendly, inviting picture of the artist in the feature. Whilst creating it I stuck with the general template of the plan but added another photo to the bottom and moved the 'pull quote' from the middle of the right hand page to the bottom on top of a photo as I realised there wasn't enough room for it.

Magazine Contents Page - Final

After making the final corrections I came to my final copy. I had to change some spelling mistakes and made the pictures overlap better by changing the size of the 'outer glow'. I feel that this contents page would appeal to my target audience as it has a DJ theme to it, it's simple and uncluttered and the 'index' allows easy browsing of the magazine. It contains images of DJ's (corresponds to the theme) and a picture of a well known artist which would attract his fans in too. It is also coherent to the front cover and keeps in with the 'house style'.

Magazine Contents Page - Step 4

After speaking to a member of my target audience, I realised that he thought the images didn't look like they really belonged on the page. He thought they didn't blend in, instead they did the opposite and looked like they didn't belong; this was changed by making the images having an 'outer glow' similar to the title of the magazine, which made it blend in. It also makes the images stand out more concentrating on the things that the target audience want to read about, and drawing them in to buy the magazine. I also decided to use the 'outer glow' tool on the headings of my categories to make them stand out too.
In the previous step I thought there was far too much empty space in the middle of the page; therefore I moved the 'features' to the top of the page and moved the pictures down making them overlap, making them feel more connected to the page. By doing this has made the space less empty and made the page relay as the writing is not just in one area of the page, it makes your eyes go all around it. This makes it look more clean and by not overlapping the pictures too much makes it less cluttered. It's simple yet stylish. The readers know they are getting their money's worth.

Magazine Contents Page - Step 3

After step 2 was complete I thought about making the page more eye-catching, I added another picture, this time of a well known singer 'Kid Cudi' which would also attract his fans to read my magazine, as his fan base are also my target audience. Through researching through other music magazines I realised that the page numbers which were paired with images simply had the number written and not the word 'page' which makes the page less cluttered and giving it a simpler look; therefore I did this and increased the size of the page numbers to make them stand out more.
I added the 'features', 'reviews' and 'exclusive in this issue' headings so that the magazine is assessable and easy to follow, I put the correct articles under each category and made the writing green (like the green used on the sell lines of the front cover) to follow through with the colour scheme on the cover, making it coherent. Using the beige from the cover I wrote the headings of each category, these words are surrounded by a green box, once again linking to the sell lines on the cover.

Magazine Contents Page - Step 2

After thinking about the price and other aspects of my magazine I decided that I wanted it to be a monthly magazine rather than a weekly one. From looking at weekly magazines I noticed that they are quickly put together and cluttered, on the other hand monthly magazines are clearer to understand and look cleanly presented. I thought that my front cover looked clean rather than cluttered and wanted to give the impression that my magazine would be easy to follow and obtain information. I also asked a few of my friends if they'd rather buy magazines weekly or monthly and came up with the conclusion that monthly was the clear favourite. I changed the wording beside the title to 'this month' rather than 'this week'. I kept the images in the same place and added page numbers in a white font, standing out on the dark backgrounds, these page numbers will allow readers to quickly flick to the pages that interest them and appealing more to the target audience. I then added three more pictures to the bottom of the page, these pictures are from the recent '02 wireless festival' which a lot of the target audience attend, so they have something to relate to and make the magazine more inclusive. Furthermore, I added a few of the features and their page numbers.

Magazine Contents Page - Step 1

The next step in making my music magazine was to create a contents page, by looking at other music magazine contents pages i realised that the recurring theme was to have the logo (title of magazine) clearly presented somewhere on the top of the page, preferably the left hand corner; therefore I did the same. I copied over the same title design and added a black strip along the top of the page to make it look similar to the cover. The 'outer glow' of the title also looks better on a black background compared to white, the pink looks like neon lights which is usually associated with DJing, which is what my magazine is mainly about. Alongside the title I have included 'this week' (at this stage it was going to be a weekly magazine, but then I changed my mind) which is in white and stands out from the black background, but doesn't stand out as much as the title, showing the title's dominance. To show that this is the contents page I wrote the word 'contents' but this time in black to stand out on the white background and of the box above. I then added to pictures that I knew I wanted to include in my contents page. From my survey I found out that my target audience are interested in new and upcoming DJ's so I made my contents page have a DJ theme, therefore targeting my audience.

Magazine contents page - Planning

This is the planning for my contents page, I made two different plans as I wasn't yet sure on what my target audience would prefer, cluttered or uncluttered. The first one is uncluttered and simple and has a clear 'index' to allow easy browsing of the magazine, unlike the second one which is cluttered and has things going on all over the page. I thought that boys would like the more messy and cluttered approach but after asking a few males of the target audience I found that they would actually prefer something simpler; therefore aiming more at the first attempt of planning. Whilst creating it I ended up constructing something that looked nothing like my plan but it was simple and uncluttered which is appealing to the audience. I kept with the same idea of having the main pictures in one place but I completely changed everything else and constructed something I feel would appeal more to the target audience.

Magazine front cover - Final

After altering a few things I came to my final copy. I added a price of £2.90 which I think is a good price for a monthly magazine, I also asked my target audience of 16-19 year old males and they agreed with this. As this age group doesn't have a lot of money it seems a fair price, compared to MOJO magazine which is £4.50 per issue, my target audience wouldn't want to spend that much money.
I feel that my magazine would appeal to the target population as it has a new upcoming drummer who people are interested in, sell lines that my survey found out that they really wanted to find out about and a coherent colour scheme that looks good and effective. There are things in this magazine that are screaming out to the target audience to buy it, it enables the reader to get 'exclusive' access to the biggest gigs, shows the 'restricted' photos from the NME awards and an 'exclusive' interview with a well known DJ.

Music Magazine front cover - Step 4

The next step in constructing my music magazine front cover was adding a few sell lines and thinking more clearly about the layout and presentation. I made sure they were kept to the sides so they don't get in the way of the main image. I then had to decide on the colour scheme, in the end I chose to continue on using beige as it goes nicely with the drums and title. After a while I thought about the coherency of the product and realised that the beige was slightly too over powering as all the sell lines were in one colour so I changed a few of the sell lines and made them green to go with the artists t-shirt. I decided to make the artist's name green to to make it stand out clearly on the pink drums. Each sell line has the special effect of 'stroke' used on them so they stand out and are more eye catching. For the sell lines I thought about what males really want to read about in music magazines, my survey also came in handy here. From the feedback I found out that they are interested in who the top bands are, how has this newish genre know as 'dub step' come around and what happens at gigs that the public aren't allowed to attend. This helped me generate my sell lines. As the survey revealed that the audience are particularly interested in the exclusive gigs I made sure that they had a chance of attending them, I chose to make the '100' stand out to show that they can attend loads of them, this was done using the 'outer glow' tool in Photoshop for it really to stand out. I have also used this effect on 'DJ Woody' so people are attracted to these areas and notice them more, they have a chance to have an exclusive interview with a talented DJ on the dub step scene which would appeal to the target audience as I had researched this in my survey. For the mode of address I have chosen words like 'exclusive' to show that my readers are lucky to find out about this information as it is restricted and selective so they must buy this magazine as they won't find this information anywhere else. I have chosen the word 'hard' to describe 'Lucas Greenwood' and 'DJ Woody' as it is a word that my target audience commonly use to describe good/talented artists therefore they can relate to this word, the magazine and feel they are inclusive. The size of the sell lines font is 18 this is small compared to the other writing on the page, it is important but not as important as the title and name of the artist on the front.

Music Magazine front cover - Step 3

After not working on my front cover of my magazine for a few days, I realised that my title did not stand out enough, it was too small and didn't look very interesting so things had to be changed. Firstly I made the font size the biggest it could go (72) and I made all the letters capitals so they are sharp and eye catching. The layout then looked better as the title ran over most of the top of the page which is similar to other magazines. I then decided that the letters should not be pink, they should be black and have an 'outer glow' of pink to really stand out against the black background. I also changed the positioning of the artists name to the bottom left hand corner, this was caused by reviewing other magazines to find out where the bar code usually goes as I was sure I hadn't seen one in the bottom left hand corner before. The artists name was then moved so the bar code could be included, the bar code was generated on the Internet using http://www.barcodesinc.com/ which gives the magazine more realism.

Music Magazine front cover - Step 2

The next stage was the designing process which involved uploading my image into Photoshop and starting to alter the title and the font to get it to a stage which will stand out and appeal to the target audience. I started with my title and decided to make it pink to match the drums, this may be a risk as it may turn some boys off but NME used the colour pink on one of their issues and it was a great success, it is a faint pink so its not to bright and feminine. I choose the title of my magazine to be called 'NOISE' as music is noise, therefore you can straight away tell that this is going to be a music magazine. Noise also can be considered as information which my magazine is trying to give out about new drummers and music. I choose a font that would stand out against the rest of the magazine so it is eye catching and making people want to read it. Considering layout was also important, I stuck with the normal forms and conventions of magazines as I placed the title at the top of the page above the artists head. I then considered where i should place the name of the artist, I first of all choose the bottom right so that there was a relay on the page, first of all looking at the title then at the image then to the artists name. I chose a lighter pink colour, beige for this as it goes well with the pink from the drums which it is laying on top of and it shows its not as important as the title of the magazine. With the special effects of Photoshop I managed to use 'stroke' which is an effect which makes the writing stand out, which is clearly presented in the image.

Music Magazine front cover - Step 1

I have decided to put Lucas Greenwood on the cover of my music magazine as he is a new upcoming drummer and is very talented. I went along to one of his rehearsals to take a few pictures of him for my cover, out of all the pictures I chose I have decided that this picture is the best as it shows contrast in colour and in light and dark making him stand out in the image. It also shows his skill as he has all the professional equipment around him, even a microphone as he sometimes sings. The image shows that he is serious about his drumming as he is not looking at the camera. This image appeals to the target audience as most boys between 16 and 19 are interested in drumming and would love to learn how to play them. It looks as if the reader is witnessing the drummer playing live as it is a mid-shot photo and we feel that we are there with him, drawing us in.

Magazine front cover - Planning

This is the planning for the front cover of my music magazine, this has to be the most eye catching and appealing to my target audience as it is the first thing they see. I wanted the masthead to be at the top (like other magazines) above the artists head to make it stand out and the artist to be positioned directly underneath taking the central focus. The sell lines and straplines positioned around the primary image keeping the artist in central focus. This was a general template for the construction part as I kept all of the ideas I used on the plan as I thought this was an effective way of targeting my target audience. I added a few more sell lines than in the plan to make it look like it contained more information and used special effects to made the words stand out more.

Planning my music magazine

• Audience: my target audience are males between the ages of 16-19 who are interested in rock music and also the new craze 'Dub-step' which is different sounds mixed together usually by DJ's to create an unusual rhythm of different sounds and it is heavy on the baseline.
• Genre: Rock, dub step
• Colour scheme: Pink, green and beige pink
• Image: a new upcoming drummer
• Feature: new DJ's who also are into the new craze of dub step, will target target audience as they can find out where to hear all this new music.
• Font: bold and eye catching, standing out from all the other magazines
• Sell lines: stuff that will interest target audience - exclusive gigs, restricted photos, top bands.
• Title: NOISE, music is noise therefore audience straight away know its going to be about music. As the primary image is a drummer, drums make a lot of noise - relating back to the title of the magazine.
  

Music Magazine Readership survey

I created a survey for my magazine to find out what my target audience are interested in, what type of music they like and why they would read a music magazine. The questions were generated by hearing some of the boys talking about new music and music magazines, I built the questions on what I'd like to find out from them. I gave it to a large proportion of my male friends between the ages of 16 and 19 which is my target audience (to the left is one of the completed ones i got back). This helped me in deciding how to target my audience and also what my feature should be on. I found out that 92% of them read a magazine monthly and NME magazine was the most popular. The genre which stood out most was defiantly 'rock' therefore this was vital in my magazine. I realised that music is really important to them and they have lots of ways of finding out about new music i.e. YouTube, Friends and magazines. As magazines was key to finding out about new music I had to make sure that there was stuff in my magazine about new and upcoming bands and music. From finding out why males between the ages of 16 and 19 read music magazines it helped me generate my sell lines for the front cover, e.g. Newest music, upcoming bands, top bands, what happens at the gigs your not allowed/too young to go to and funny photos. These are the things that are going to sell the magazine; therefore had to be present on the front cover. The last thing that had to be decided was the feature, this was relied on by the last question of my survey. If I got a positive outcome (a tick in the yes box) I would definitely have my feature if not I would have to completely rethink it, luckily people were interested in upcoming bands and DJ's; therefore I had my feature decided. This survey was a great and useful idea in helping to target and appeal to my audience as they can find out/ read things they actually want to, making it popular and sell well. If I were to redo this survey I would include more questions like 'Why do DJ's interest you?', 'What other genre's apart from rock do you enjoy listening to?' and some more open questions for more in depth responses, this would help me target the audience more specifically.

Music Magazine Research

Kerrang!
This is Kerrang magazine.The cover is in complete contrast to the one of NME as this is very simple and uncluttered. It has the masthead in black which connotes death which is relevant to the band 'slipknot' as they are a heavy metal band who sing about death. The masthead looks as if it's glass and it has been smashed which relates to the idea of death. The colour scheme is black, white and red which all fit into the theme. Like the cover of NME the image is the main focus but this one looks scary and is unsettling, it looks like a monster of some kind and appears to have no eyes. Even though the background is white and the image is white it still manages to stand out due to the black outlining. In the top right hand corner there is a red blood spot which says 'cover 8 of 9' this suggests that 'slipknot' are a popular band to have been on the cover. Even though it is minimalistic it is a very effective cover as it stands out from the other magazines on the magazine rack due to its extreme monster/demon image. There is a unique selling point to this issue and that is they are giving away 'free posters' of some other well known rock bands, people will want to buy this issue for that reason. Like NME Kerrang is also a weekly magazine but has been around a shorter amount of time, it was first published on 6th June 1981 and has a circulation of 43,000 readers which is about 2,000 more readers than NME. They have similar target audience's of 17-40 year olds.

Music Magazine Research

NME
This is the special festival edition of 'NME' Music magazine which focuses on the line up for the 2009 Reading and Leeds festivals. The front cover is very effective due to the choice of colours, using the colour red outlined with black makes the title stand out so when you look at the magazines in the magazine rack the title of NME stares at you. Particularly as the colour red is the first colour that attracts the human eye and it contrasts to the white background. NME have cleverly copied the colour scheme for the festival banners, using red, yellow and black. which lets the reader know its going to be about those festivals.
Most of the page is taken up by the band the 'Arctic Monkeys', they are the main focus. As we know this is the festival issue we straight away presume that they will be one of the main acts. This is verified by 'from the desert to Reading & Leeds. It is selling the festival to us. This is written in the colour yellow which stands out from the black top and denim jacket of the band members, it's very in your face as it's such a bright exotic colour. Under the heading of the 'Arctic Monkeys' it says 'on the third album that changed them' this is in yellow but with a red background which stands out as it is the only piece of text that is like that. It suggests they are even better now than they were before, so everyone must go and see them live. Underneath this we have a list of other bands that will be performing (written in yellow to follow the theme).
Then there is a short line written in white which stands out on the background behind it saying that there is going to be even more bands the 'best' ones. NME are cleverly trying to sell the festival and they probably won as there target audience is 17-30 which is the age group that goes to festivals.
NME is published weekly and has been ever since March 1952 and has a circulation of 40,948.