Thursday, 11 April 2013

Question 7
Question 6


Who would be the audience for your media product?

With my R’N’B magazine it has quite a big age range for my target audience, it is targeted for males and females and of all colours and tends to be for teenagers to young adults however people in their late adulthood may also listen to this. Older adults may want to buy this as R’N’B originated from soul which has been out for many years.
Some males may buy the magazine to read about their favourite celebrity to inspire to be like them and get an insight of what the article is on. Which could be music or their personal life were they can relate, or a celebrity crush were they want to read about in see into their love life. In the magazine so that it appealed strongly to male audiences, my research showed that in magazines and also music videos that women are very provocative and this is what attract males more, so I decided to put an good-looking female for men to be enticed by also by adding the jewels adds a sign of wealth which most R’N’B artist show off. I also tried to show of the glamour by the colour scheme I used which is like a diamond colour again showing a sign of wealth.
This can also attract females they can relate to females by making the article reality they talk about love or being heartbroken which will appeal to the females more as they are stereotypically more sensitive. Also most R’N’B artist are known for their fashion senses and by having a female on the front and also a double page spread it will engage them in buying and reading about them as celebrities start of trends so their audience can copy and be like them. 

Question 5: Front cover Contents page Double page spread

Wednesday, 10 April 2013



How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
My magazine is an R’N’B magazine with upcoming new artists. It does not have a particular social group nor does it just appeal to males but also females, it is for both sexes. However it may relate to people who are struggling such as working or lower class, who want to succeed in life and determine to do their best.
Also in my features column it is more about past lives and were they are now. The reason being for this is that so my audience can relate to them with their past experiences and learning how they do as well as the artists can. Most of my artists have not come from a privileged background such as Eminem who grew up in the street life but is now a well-known artist.
R’N’B is about inspiring people to do the best they can, it’s about real life so that the audience can relate. They also attract females and groups the articles show that they were a part of the audience before but they have changed. I took the ideas for my features from VIBE magazine which I changed into my words this is where I got the idea from.
Though is about music, it is also about real life this means the drama that also happens such as their love life’s to spice up the magazine we talk about relationships so people do relate and have full insight in the celebrities life which makes it more personal. Also by having contest shows the celebrities are willing to play a part in their fans lives and the audience can relate to them more. 
In my magazine I tried linking the genre R’N’B to the images also, by having a girl group in their natural setting, makes it more real for the audience and brings it onto a personal level. Also with having features such as exclusives and behind the scenes this also allows the celebrity and audience to relate personally bringing them closer. And it shows that effort is put in for the audience making them feel more special. 

Friday, 22 March 2013

This is my double page spread were I completely changed from the flat plan. The reason being for this is that the image which I took of my model, I thought was really effective and could write more about which will draw the reader in more. I believe having the light to dark affect makes it look more professional look.
You can see throughout my magazine I used the same colour scheme also the same types of font so that it links to all the pages. This is so that my audience would recognise that they all are linked.


This is my contents page which I followed a convention of the Billboard magazine and flowed my own flat plan. The only things which I changed around was the heading because not everything fitted on one page, if I wanted to follow the convention of the features page were they will have a title and a couple of sentences no other sub heading will fit.

Thursday, 21 March 2013


This is my final front cover, which I tried to copy as an R'n'B magazine, I used all the conventions that I saw and used some techniques which gave the magazine a professional look. I used Photoshop to complete this; I followed my flat plan which I did change some features around such as the pop button as it looked childish on the front cover. Also I did try my magazine in the colour red which was its original colour but personally it didn’t fit well and looked childish. So I changed it to more of neutral colour and so that it fits in well with the double page spread also.

Friday, 15 February 2013

Editing Skills

For my front cover of my magazine I have used different editing types to present my work. Some of the effects I used are shown in the screen shot and I also explained what the tool is and what it does. Most of the effects I used were really handy as they made my text and image look more professional.

Monday, 11 February 2013

For our media work one of the programmes which we will be using for our contents page and double page spread, is Indesign. The video below shows a demonstration on how to use the programme.

These are the types of font I might be using for my magazines; the fonts which I chose are clear bold and easy to read just like RNB magazine vibe. The two which I have put in boxes are the chosen ones which people have chosen that would make the best clear title.

Thursday, 7 February 2013

These images are my front cover potentials which I have done. I have chosen the best four clear images. The image I pick I will start to edit and manipulate so it gives the image more of a professional look.

Tuesday, 5 February 2013

This is one of the images I will be using for my contents page, it was inspired by a front cover of vibe magazine

Monday, 4 February 2013

These are my test shots for my front cover, as you can see some of the images are quite blurry, I will need to adjust the settings. I have tried using a model with curly hair and a white t shirt; however I found out that I did not like how the pictures looked so I decided to change the ideas around in my final. The model has tights curls, which I will change to loose curls. Also the clothing because there is going to be a clear white background the whit t shirt did not work, so this will be changed to a black vest top. Also my model looks quite plain so more jewellery may be added.

Friday, 1 February 2013

For my double page spread I will need to create an interview based round this:

Genre

What genre is the magazine?
What type of artist might you be interviewing?

Audience

Who are your audience?
What will your audience what to know?
What information are you trying to get out of your artist?

Format

How can you phrase the questions to make the questions to make the artist give you the information you want?
How many questions might you include?
This is one of the images which I edited; I just played around with the colour effects and changed the Cross Orton effects and the Bloom which gives it more of a professional look. But as you can see the background of the image has been ruined as it is not clear.

Test Shots

These are my test shots which I taken in my media lesson. The images  I done are a vague idea of how I want my pictures in my contents page to look, the images do not look so professional as the background is not well throughout but this will be an improvement in my final images.

The first image is of my model holding a microphone, I want this to like that she was playing in a concert so she was busy facing down and singing. The idea was from billboard were an artist was pictures during her performance

The second image is just of instruments of drums, I realised this was not really apart of my genre so I may change the instruments around. The reason why I have just the instruments is that I wanted to create mystery of who the band may be.

The last image is of my model working; she is playing with a keyboard and listening through headphones. The idea of this was to get an artist working on his/ her track so it will be an exclusive behind the scene and making of the music. This will draw the reader in more as it will be private and more interesting to read.

Thursday, 31 January 2013

This is the peer assessment which I had to do with another media student were, she analysed my flat plans and said if it was poor average or excellent.

Appropriate material for target audience – Proficient
Understanding on conventions of layout and page designs – Proficient
Awareness of variety in fronts and text size – Excellent
Accurate of language and register – Excellent
Planning of the photo – Excellent

Friday, 25 January 2013

Shot List


This is my shot list which I will be using for my magazine. The shot list helped me have an idea to decide on the timings I will be taking my picture and which parts of my magazine I will be working on first. The shot list contained the location were I will be taking my pictures, what type of location, mise-en-scene and the props which I will be using. This was very beneficial at it saved me time to decide this all later when taking he pictures. It also had the shot type which gave picture of how I want my magazine to look linking to the flat plan. The shot list gave me a clear idea of what type of pictures this is my shot list which I will be using for my magazine. The shot list helped me decide I will be using or trying to us, and if not I will be able to analyse this to in the notes column if there was any problems and what were the successes.

Wednesday, 23 January 2013

This is my flat plan which I created using the inspiration of different R&B magazines you can see this in the post below. I have created my front cover, contents and double page spread this was then shown to another media student were I got the feed back to pick a colour scheme and to write the directions were text would go and images, even if I can’t think of what I’m going to write.



Front cover
Contents page
Double page spread
Photo shop 1

This is one of the pictures which I photoshoped, I learnt how to add colours to certain parts of the image which I wanted. I had done this by layering the image with the same image and changing the picture to black and white, and then rubbing out the bit where I wanted colour.

These are the ideas and inspiration which I got in creating my flat plan, these R&B magazines helped me choose what conventions I would have in my magazine.
Cover
I have researched front covers of R&B magazines, and these were my most favourable images. Most of the shots on the magazine cover are a close up or a mid shot, this is what I also found out was the most effective in my market research. Also in all of the images they have eye contact this draws the reader in and makes them feel more engaged with the magazine. In my magazine I have decided to have a close up shot of my model lying down or up against a plain wall. The reason for this is because it is a convention in R&B magazines to have a close of a celebrity with added effects such as no background, brightness and contrast. I will also have the heading just over the forehead of the model as my magazine is not well known people would not instantly recognise it if parts are missing like the Christina Billboard magazine.  I will also add in subheadings on the right and left side with the models name in a large text like the magazines bellow. I would also add in a button or some sort of feature to the right top of the page. 
Contents
There were not many R&B Magazines that caught my eyes apart from the billboard magazine it contains more then one image, which is different for vibes magazine, they only consist of one image which has been affected. But personally I feel that billboard has more of a statement which I copied. This was a good affect, which I tried doing similar features just different colour scheme. I will have the 3 images above and also an effective image on the side that goes with the white background. Also I saw that R&B magazines have subheadings above the number of pages, which show different sections that the magazine consists of such as exclusive, featuring and news this makes it easier for the reader to see what section they want to go to which I be doing something similar to. 
Double  
When I done my research for R&B magazines these are the two images that really stood out and for me was the most effective.  All of the images that have been used in the both magazines have been edited. This is a big main convention in R&B magazines. The effects used is to make the image transparent or adjusting the colour. Another convention which I saw was that that there was a teaser on big bold writing that is in different colour to the text, I will also be using this in my magazine. Also pull quotes are used which are usually in a different font size and colour. There could also be a title or the artist name in bold writing, also there needs to be the title of the magazine on the top left corner and who the article was done by.

Photography session
In today’s photography session we were learning about planning, camera shots, and lighting and to focus the camera by using IOS and aperture, this was done by using the Manual button on the Canon camera so that we have full control. We were learning about relating the image to our chosen genre and how we can use different, and that to get the right pictures I should take around 100 pictures to at least get the right 5. This helped me get an idea of how my pictures for the front cover of the magazine should look as in the type of shot I use and to see the proportion of the image and that eye contact is the most effective.
Below you can see the images we took of our photography teacher; these images have not been edited. But after this we were taught how to Photoshop the image, such as brightness and contrast, how to use the rubber tool efficiently and manipulating images so they are black and white or add colour to specific parts of the image by layering the same picture onto another and rubbing out the bits we want in colour. We also learnt how to airbrush using different tools so that the skin looks smooth and has a professional textured look.

Friday, 18 January 2013

This is a criteria which I have to meet in making my flat plan Flat plans

 -It must be as detailed as possible with text and colour completed. It should look like your completed magazine
-It should show how your research has influenced the design of the flat plan and should include a minimum of 4 different images.
 -The design can and will change and adapt but you must always explain and justify these changes -At the end, the finished magazine should be recognisable from the flat plan.

The image shows the mark scheme which i have to follow to achieve the best possible grade which is in band 4

Wednesday, 16 January 2013

Focus group This was a focus group which was done by me and two other students. The two students which helped my work analysed an R&B magazine, they commented on the front cover, contents page and double page spread. This helped me see what other people thought; having other peoples input was good for market research. I now know what potential target audience thought of R&B magazines The first question which I asked was what they liked about the magazine and the comments were said that they liked the image of TI and his eye connection with the audience. This shows me that the audience like the eye contact as it makes them feel more involved. And the colour scheme and layout has to look well or it wouldn’t attract the buyer to even look inside the magazine The second question I asked was do they like the contents page they said that it was different in a positive way. And also they liked the effect of the background of how it blends from dark to light giving more effect on the women. I then asked how can it be improved and they said that they would like to see more images which link to the text. This is what I also found out in my questionnaire. So more images works well, however I need to do more research if this is what R&B magazine consists of. Then I asked what they thought of the double page spread, they didn’t like it as much because of the colour theme it blends in too much with the background and it’s not clear or readable. This was also the same as my questionnaire and I have to think about the colour theme which I pick. I then asked if who they thought the magazine was target to, they replied with teenagers this helped me pick a reader profile and what age range I should do.

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Qualitative Data This is the qualitative data which I have looked at and commented one the ones which were said most. I have token close up pictures on some answers which were said more than once and have commented on them and what I will now do in my future magazine. all this research which I have found out I will now use in my input of my magazine I will test out new editing skills and use different fonts this will all be updated on my blog seeing the choices I had and how has the market researched influenced this choice.
What do you like about the cover of the R&B magazine? The magazine they saw was vibe magazine a majority of the people said that they like the layout and the colour scheme is what appealed to them most. Also the pull out quotes they seemed interesting so they wanted to see what was inside the magazine. This showed me that I also have to think about my colour scheme and how it will match my target audience and if it would catch their eyes.
What is good about the contents page and how can it be improved? The comments which were given was that the big image of the two models worked well, they over dominate the page, but most people liked that about the magazine. However even though the image works well the text was a problem with most people also they said that there was too little text and, it didn’t relate to the image so that could be an improvement. On my magazine I will have a dominant image and also little images that relate to the magazine and link in with the work so that it meets everyone’s taste.
What is good about the double page spread and how can it be improved? Everyone commented on the images being a positive and the editing effects was a good choice. But most people did say that the colour scheme was not well thought as it blends in with the background to much. Also the font was not clear enough in the article so it wasn’t that readable. By these comments which I also agreed with I liked the editing skills used and the shot types, which I wanted to use in my magazine. I now need to pick a colour scheme that works well on and that are opposite colours so that it is clear, bold and readable.

Quantitative Results

I have finished of my questionnaire were I have asked 20 people about R&B Magazine and what they thought of it having potential reader profile helping me with my market research . In the first part I tallied up the quantitative data into a Bar chart using Microsoft Office Excel and I will be analysing the results which I found. This is an image of all 20 quessionaires which I filled out.
Question: How old are you? -The majority of the people who has filled out my questionnaire were 17-18 this is in the same age range as myself but I did try and pick more people who are at an different age range and only had 5 responses this is not bad because by looking at the different age ranges I have already related to R&B as they do not have a specific age range and by this I have got a mixture of feedback on what I can add to my R&B magazine and I saw that even though the age ranges are different what they answered and chose for an option was similar.
Question: What is your favourite Sub genre? -To ensure that I was doing a well-known sub-genre I have asked the question in my market research which is their favourite over all, 13 out of 20 had chosen my sub-genre which reinsures me that my genre is highly popular and my potential target audience already would relate to my work. This has gave me more confident that I have chosen a good sub-genre as I personally can relate more as I also listen to R&B music, I can also have more input from the market with more samples of my work as they like R&B.
Question: What attracts you most to a cover of an R&B Magazine? -The reasoning why I asked this question was to see what the audience thought what would have the most effect on the cover of the magazine. I had an idea which was my own and that was the main image of the celebrity, this was then confirmed when 14 others also said that the main images attracts them most. With this information I now have to make sure in my magazine that my main image has to stand out and be the most effective as it is what people mainly look for this in an R&B magazine. A few people did also choose heading, but this was only because they had a customer loyalty which is buying a specific brand over time. I added in the option of freebies but only one person chose this, I believe this is because my audience is more mature and if I was doing a magazine for kids freebies would be more effective.
Question: What do you like about the contents page of the magazine?-In most R&B contents pages the image still over takes the text, even this is done in most magazines, I wanted to know if this was what my audience also preferred. The response I received was that 11 out of 20 did also agree to this, this shows that a majority of the people do prefer image over text. As they do this in most R&B magazines I will also have to do this. I also found that text and quotes are important as they pull the reader in more, I have to think about how I will set my contents page out using this information.
Question: does this double page spread catch your eye? -I chose this double page spread purposely because it was one of my favourites and I had some ideas on how I would present mine using similar effects. I wanted to know if it was as effective as it was for me to others also. The feedback which I received was 16 out of 20 said yes this was a good response, as I can now use ideas from this contents page on to mine.

Monday, 14 January 2013

For my Primary Market research I handed out a questionnaire with different types of questions this is how it looked and it shows the front cover, contents page and double page spread which they will be analysing and commenting on. With some of questions I can tally up and with the other I will take in consideration and comment on my self for my Magazine.

Sunday, 13 January 2013

For my magazine I have to conduct market research, one of the the market research which I will be doing is handing out about 5 – 10 questionnaires were I will be asking a range of qualitative and quantitative questions this will help me in completing my magazine as I can see what my audience would like to see what I Should add from R&B magazines. In the image you can see the types of questions which I will be asking in my questionnaire, I will transfer this into word and hand them out to different age range as R&B attracts most ages.
On my Facebook and Instragram I have added and followed Jaya, this will keep me updated on upcoming performances which I may be able to attend and get interviews or pictures which will help me with my magazine. Also I can message Jaya on Facebook and ask questions which can also help me with my work and I can use her for my double page spread if I can ask questions and she can answer. By following her on Instragram this will allow me to her upcomming events and seeing if can attend these events. Facebook:
Instagram:
This is a Brainstorm which I created using https://bubbl.us/ . It is a brainstorm of different types of genres, i used this to help me pick a sub genre which I personally really enjoyed researching. I picked out the important points and added them in my brainstorm. The sub genre which I chose was R&B because it is the type of music I would personally listen to and I would enjoy writing and going more in depth with my research. This would also make it eaasier for me to write  reader profile that will help in creating my own magazine.

Tuesday, 8 January 2013

This an analysis of Vibe Magazine, i was looking at the front, contents and double page spread page. I was looking for the different types of images,fonts, and colour used. This will help me in creating my own R&B magazine as i can get inspiration form Vibe magazine