Pictures I am thinking of using for my magazine.

This is the picture that I am going to use for my front cover. I have had to sharpen it up as my picture was out of focus but I like how it shows my group to be a bit cheeky and it shows them having fun putting decorations on the Christmas tree. I have also had to crop this picture as it had some things on that I didn't need.

This is one of the pictures that are on my contents page. I have use one of my photo's as the background and lightened that so the pictures of my group will stand out. I have cropped this picture and sharpened it to make it even more sharper but more professional.

This is the other picture that will be on my contents page, this has also been cropped and sharpened to look more professional. I think by putting these pictures on randomly adds to my magazine and makes it fun to look at.

This is a picture of my cat that belongs to my girl group and took part in the photo shoot. This picture will also be on the contents page and he is talked about in my interview with my girl band. This picture hasn't been cropped or sharpened and it looks very professional.

This is the picture I am going to use as the main picture for my feature article, my pictures are going to sell a story and this is before the presents have been opened. I have also sharpened this picture as it was also out of focus and for all my pictures I have cropped them.

This is the next picture in my feature article as my pictures are going to tell the story of my girl group opening presents. This has also been cropped and sharpened. This picture shows my group have picked up presents which are for them and they are going to open them.

This is the third picture that will be in my feature article, I haven't had to crop this but I have had to sharpen it. With all my pictures, I am not quite happy with them but I think they work really well with the theme of my magazine and appeal to my target audience.

This is the last picture of my feature article, this picture again has had to be cropped and sharpened. I was out of focus for most of my pictures but even with that I am happy with them. The colours connect with my magazine as they are oranges, yellow, red and pink and I think they blend together.

Draft of feature article

Earlier on this week, I handed in my draft of my feature article to be marked by my teacher. As I am doing a interview, I had to get my aritsts personalities across. Once speaking to my teacher, she has told me that I have done but the answers are not long enough and are more toward the gossip side then the music side. As I have been given feedback, I am know going to write my article again and hand it back in to my teacher. I am happy with my article but want it to be right so the next few days - 9th, 10th and 11th of December, I am going to spend re-drafting my article.
This is the first draft of my article which has been marked and handed back to me, I have been told that my article is good and I am useing a good range of different languages but my article is leaning more towards an article for a gossip magazine not a music magazine. I was also told that I didn't include the name of my groups new album and single which I know I have to include.I have also been told that I have got across the groups personalitys very well in my interview as I know that is very hard to do. Overall, my teacher is happy with my article but it just needs some changing which I am going to do and hand in again for another check. I am going to change some of my spellings and make my answeres longer, which I have been suggested to do so. Also, I will change around some of my answers and make some of my questions more professional.

Font ideas

I went on dafont.com and found these fonts that appeal for me to use in my magazine. The fonts I have been looking at are mainly going to be used for my heading of my magazine. Each one of these fonts are different and I have chose them as I think they will give different meaning to my magazine. The fonts I prefer are the NEW FACEBOOK, HAETTENSCHWEILER and MANUAL COOKIE BUCKET. I prefer these 3 as I think they suite the style of my magazine and my target audience. I think I will use NEW FACEBOOK as my font for my headings as I think it is the best font for my magazine and age range my magazine is aimed at. The style of this font is young but also will appeal to my older audience as it is a font that can be used where ever.

I also like HAETTENSCHWEILER and MANUAL COOKIE BUCKET as they are fonts that will also appeal to my whole target audience and will stand out on my magazines front page.

The other fonts, MAKEMEALPHA, GREEN PILLOW and DIRTY HEADLINE are good heading ideas but I don't think they are right for my magazine. GREEN PILLOW is to childish and the other fonts are two old for my younger audience. If I get my fonts wrong then they will not appeal to my target audience the way I wont them to.

Mock up of my feature article

This is a mock up of my feature article, the image in the corner is going to be my main image and the other images will be smaller around it. I have decided to do one large image and little small images to break up my interview so it is easier for my audience to read. The text will be black but will be large enough for my audience to read and my interview will have many different questions so my audience doesn't get bored with my article. The heading of my magazine will be on the top of the page in its colour to keep the house style going throughout my magazine. My feature article will have many different pictures to keep the audience entertained rather then just writing and one picture which will make my audience skip past my article as it will not entertain them. My pictures are still going to be from the christmas photo shoot as I changed my mind before I made my mock up of my feature article so it was easy for me to design.

Mock up of my contents page

My contents page has been split into sections so it is easier for my audience to choose what they would prefer to read. By adding sections also doesn't over power my audience with too much information and makes the page seem friendly. There will be a main picture on my content page of my artist to entice the audience to read the article on the girl group. The heading of my magazine will also be there in the same colour as my front cover to keep the house style the same throughout my magazine. The magazines website address will also be at the top of the page, i will keep it at the top of the page as it creates more audiences for my magazine and its website. The colours for my contents page again will be red, pink, purple, yellow and orange. The colours are also quite christmassy so it will appeal to my audience. I have added sections to my contents as my audience likes familiarity and by spliting my page into sections, such as: Stories of the week, Celeb world and reviews. I have added Celeb world as my magazine is a hybrid magazine and gossip is my hybrid.

Mock up of my front page - new idea

I have changed the idea of my whole magazine by making it a christmas magazine. My new front cover has a christmas tree in the background and my group will be dressed in party clothes around the christmas tree. My heading will be the full name of my magazine as I prefer it to just PG. I have also added more information on my front cover to entice my audience even more by adding what is in the interviews and the other pages. My front cover will have the website for my magazine as well as the information for what number issue it is and when it is being sold. My magazine also has the price of it with the barcode of £2.30, I have chosen this price as it is not to expensive and I will make a profit from it, also, my questionnaire results showed me that my audience is welling to pay between £2 and £3 for a good music magazine.

My colours will be the same as before but my font is going to be different. My colour of my heading will be red or pink. The other headings will be many different colours but will go with my colour scheme of red, pink, yellow, purple and orange.

Mock up of my front page

This is the mock up of my front page, this was my idea before I changed my mind to do a christmas themed photo shoot. The colours of my magazine will be red, purple, pink, yellow and orange, all the colours that stand out. My title will be bold and each different text will be different fonts and sizes. I have added well known artists to my front cover so my audience will read my whole magazine as the artists appeal to my audience. My title will be dark pink but will stand out and the font will be really big and bold in order for it to stand out on the shelfs in shops. Each of my different sub-headings will be linked in the colours and each font will be different. I will add pictures of the other artists but as im not allowed to take pictures off the internet, I will take extra pictures of different people in order to make my front cover suitable for my target audience.

Feedback - 6/12/09

Excellent progress Romany - well done! Some interesting research and planning on here.

Planning:

- It might be nice to outline your artist and their image - and why they are good to be the featured artists in your magazine

- Now that you have written your feature article - put it onto your blog also.

- once done - put your drawn mock -ups of your pages on here

- you could also go online to dafont.com and look and analyse the connotations of fonts - that you might use for your header (name of magazine) and throughout your magazine.

- see your 'before you blog sheet' for the other planning you can do!

Miss McNulty

Timeline for shooting

In order to have enough time to create my music magazine I have planned out the rest of my planning and have created enough time to take photos and create my music magazine.

The week beginning the 7Th of December 2009 is going to be my last week of planning and designing how my magazines front cover, contents page and feature article is going to look. It will also be the week that I finish my feature article as I am doing the first draft at this moment in time.

During the week beginning the 7Th of December I have decided to take out the still cameras and so my photo shoot on Thursday the 10th of December. My photo shoot will be a christmas shoot at my house.

Once Christmas is over, the week beginning the 4Th of January 2010 is the final two weeks I have to create my magazines front cover, contents page and feature article.

My girl Band

These are the people that are going to be my new girl band. There names are Louise Yates and Sarah Belshaw. I have chosen these as my girl band as they are willing to be in the photo shoots and don't mind me taking pictures of them.

They will both be the singers and will have a band behind them but Sarah Yates and Sarah Belshaw will be the protagonists of my new band.

I have decided to use my two friends as my new girl group as they have the right personality and looks. They are into fashion and gossip which will appeal to my audience. There age will also appeal to the older audience as my older audience will feel like they know them and want my audience will want to read about them.

Planning - Costume and Props list

As my magazine is a pop music magazine, my bands image is going to be inspired by the genre of music. My inspiration for my bands image is the likes of Cheryl Cole, The Saturdays and celebrities such as Coleen Rooney.

I like this picture of Cheryl Cole because she is giving me ideas of the costumes for my band. I like the skinny jeans look with high hills and I am thinking that this is going to be the image of my band.

I have chosen this image as another inspiration for my photo shoot as I like the wet leggings look and I think that the colours work well together and they also connect with the colours of my magazine. Cheryl Cole is a role model to young girls and what she wears gives young girls ideas. I am including Cheryl Cole in my magazine as it will attract customers and sell magazines.

As The Saturdays are the newest girl group, young girls like their fashion and again The Saturdays are role models to young girls. I have added this picture as it has given me another idea for my photo shoot. I think what they are wearing gives inspiration to young and older girls. The Saturdays are also going to be included in my magazine as they will attract young girls as well as Cheryl Cole.

Coleen Rooney is a style icon to teenage girls. I like her dress as it is very bright and it gives me another idea for my photo shoots. Also, I think as we are in the winter, a bright coloured dress will stand out on the front page of my magazine and will attract the audiences eyes.

Props on a photo shoot are very important. They can make the people who they are or bring inspiration to the audience. For my photo shoot, I am using two decorated christmas trees. There will be wrapped up presents and lots of christmas decorations.

Research - Circulation figures of music magazines

As part of my research, I have researched the circulation figures of music and celebrity magazines. The figures I have found are not from the official ABC website, so some of the figures may be incorrect.

Through my research, I found out that the two biggest music magazines, NME and Kerrang! are losing profit as people are not buying their magazine and I found out that Closer and Heat are the best celebrity magazines at the moment as their profits have risen eventhough heatworld.com has lots of readers of heat magazine going on their website rather than buying their magazine. I think it's strange that the most famous music magazines are falling in profit. For example, Kerrang! magazine went from 76,937 readers to 60, 294.

Research - Ideology

My text will push the messages and values of my artists and the messages and values of how other people life and that many people have different styles which will push my audience to understand that you don't need to follow the crowd, you can be different. My text will also push the messages and values of youth, to show that many people life differently and it doesn't matter what gender you are, everyone is equal. My text will follow dominant ideologies as my magazine will be sold all over the country so my audience nows that there are many different ideas and beliefs and my magazine will help my audiences understand that as there will be many sections to my magazine.

In my magazine, I don't think they will follow the alternative ideologies as I have already decided that my magazine will follow the dominant ideologies. I have decided not to use alternative ideologies because they will challenge my dominant ideologies and I do not want to confuse my audiences.

Questionnaire results

These are two questions that were on my questionnaire that I have analysed and put them into two graphs.

The first question that I put into a graph was 'What music magazines do you buy?' I decide to use this as it gives a clear outline to what music magazine is the most popular. Although I only gave out 15 questionnaires, my first graphs has 17 answers as two of my questionnaires came back with more than one answer for this question. My results showed me that Top of the Pops is the most popular magazines amongst my whole target audience but most of the answers for top of the pops came back from my younger audience. Closely followed was other magazines that were not on my list but were very popular. There were magazines such as Rolling Stones. I also gave out questionnaires to my secondary audience and they gave back answers such as Nuts and FHM.

NME magazine was the magazine that my older audiences seem to like best and Kerrang! was also another magazine that my older teenagers seemed to like more than other magazines.

My second graph is from the question 'How old are you?' I did this to outline who my questionnaire has been handed out to and how old each of them are. I noticed that the most popular ages were 13-14 and 15-16. These ages were mostly who I gave my questionnaire out to as they are the ages that my magazine will mostly been around. The red and blue sections are the same size as they have 6 questionnaire answers in each, the yellow is the ages 17-18 as only 3 of my questionnaires came back with the age range and non of my questionnaires came back with ages 19+ which is why the colour, which is green is not showing on my graph.

Planning Mood Boards

I have created a mood board to show my ideas for clothes and types of fonts for my magazines. I have added pictures of eye make-up as I like the bold bright colours as it makes eyes stand out, that has also given me inspiration for my photo shot because I could bring out the eyes of my girl group. I have many different fonts on my mood board as I think the style of fonts in your magazine helps if the readers read it or not as boring fonts will not draw the readers eyes. I also have pictures of fashion that can relate to my genre as they are the latest fashion and many teenage girls would look at my magazine for what my artist and other celebrities are wearing.

I have added pictures of Lady Gaga and Cheryl Cole as they will be in my magazine and their fashion inspires audiences.

Pop Videos

This video by The Saturdays has given me ideas for my photoshot. I like the way they are standing by the cars and what they are wearing. Also, many of my audiences like the saturdays and will read my magazine if they are featured in it.

Pop videos

I have added this video for my research because JLS are one of the biggest bands at the moment and my magazine will appeal to my audience if the biggest bands and artists at the moment are in my magazine.

Pop videos

This video by Lady GaGa is another pop video, wheras my other pop video would appeal to my younger audience, Lady GaGa will appeal to my older audience which will help sell my magazine to the wider audience.

Pop videos

I have chosen this video from Girls Aloud as they are inspirational to young girls as they have achieved the dream and many young girls want to be like them, dress like them and have the life they lead. I might include Girls Aloud in my magazine as I know the younger audience of my target audience will like to know what they are up to and whether they are going to make another album and single. 

Feedback - 28/11/09

Very good research Romany! Good use of pictures etc... Dont forget you can put videos on also - for Youtube - you may want to put some pop videos on here when you are planning.

Now display your questionnaire results - pick the most useful question/s and make some bar charts/pie charts etc... Dont forget to use psychographic profiling (Young and Rubicon) and Maslow to determine your audience and how your product will appeal to your audience.

Go onto the ABC website to find out audience/circulation figures for magazines too - is there a market out there for your product?

Now move onto planning ( see the last two sheets on the 'before you blog' handout) Start your mood boards, rough mock up of pages, props list, shooting schedule etc....

Institution

My media text belongs to the institution that creates it. My media text meets the demands of my target audience by advertising my media text on television on channels, such as, BBC three, E4 and many music channels. My media text also follows the 'character' of the institution by adding traits from the channels that meet my target audience. My media text will also follow the remits/rules that the channels my media text will be advertised, for example, PSB remits for channel 4 and BBC.

The typical traits of this institution is that everybody knows what media texts follow. For example, Hollywood films follow the traits of big budgets, big stars, simple story lines, make believe, CGI and STX, whereas British films follow the traits of small budgets, complex story lines, unknown stars, reality and they usually end unhappy.

With magazines, different magazines follow different traits. For example, OK! magazine follows the traits of medium budgets, well known stars, good gossip that everyone wants to read and the magazine isn't expensive to buy. Whereas, music magazines, such as NME that only comes out once a month, has high budgets, well known artists but also upcoming artists and competitions.

I have found different example of this institution in music magazines by researching many different magazines. Each magazine has different traits but also have similar traits.

Representation

In my media text there will be two protagonists as they are the new girl group that will be the main feature in my music magazine. There will be many pictures of my main characters that will be in different locations. They will be represented in clothes which will represent my music magazine. My protagonists will be stereotypes as my music magazine is pop and the pop stereotypes do have distinctive clothes. The media uses stereotypes as a shortcut to creating their media text as they relate to different audiences.

The characteristics of my protagonists are related through the images from my music magazine and this is another part of my magazine that will extend my audience.

Walter Lippmann came up with four functions of stereotypes. He said that stereotypes are shortcuts for journalists, they are an ordering process, a map of the world so people can associate different places with different stereotypes and Walter Lippmann also said that stereotypes are an expression of our values and beliefs.

Audience

My primary target audience are young girls to older teenagers. My magazine is available to everyone, not just specific people. My age range is 13-18 year olds but 19 year olds would probably like my magazines as well so I think my age range is 13-19 year old girls. My music magazine will essentially belong to the middle class right through to the subsidence class. By using psychographic profiling I can determine my audience. My audience will be young to older teenage girls. As my magazine is a music magazine it will be up to date as it will have the latest celebrity gossip and music. As climate change is a big problem, my magazine will be made out of eco-friendly paper. By using eco-friendly paper, my music magazine will appeal to other audiences which will widen my target audience.

My secondary target audience for my magazine are boys as they are half of the population and by excluding them will limit my audience. The age range of my secondary target audience will be from 13-15. This is because many boys don't want to know about celebrities and so wont buy my magazine. Again, the same as my primary target audience, my magazine will be available for everyone. My magazine will be mainly for middle classes to subsidence class.

Through using Maslow's Hierarch of Needs my text will fill nearly all of the basic human needs. My magazine will fulfil the Esteem need by showing different body shapes to make my audience feel comfortable in their own body and it will show respect for others. My music magazine will also cover the self-actualization need, my magazine will show creativity, acceptance of facts and morality. This will appeal to my audience as my magazine appeals to many different people and they look for different things in music magazine's so each of the basic human needs will appeal to different people and different times.

My product will appeal to its audience as the colours will be for my target audience age range and the music that will be in my magazine will be artists that are for my age range of target audience. There will be groups for teenage girls and groups for young girls, for example, Girls Aloud and The Saturdays.

As part of my research, I have created a questionnaire with ten questions to give to my primary audience, however, I have also given my questionnaire out to my secondary audience to help me with my research. I have given my questionnaire out to 15 people within my age range of my music magazine. However, I have had to change my questionnaire as I put the wrong ages so my audience were a bit confused as to which age box to tick.

Questionnaire

(Please tick your answers where necessary.)

1. Do you buy a music magazine?

Yes

No

2. Do you buy a music magazine weekly or monthly?

Weekly

Monthly

3. What music magazine do you buy?

NME Kerrang! Vibe

Top of the pops Other (please state)

4. How much money would you be prepared to spend?

£2 - £3 £3 - £4 £5 +

5. Which music do you prefer?

Pop Hip/hop RnB

Rock Dance

Other (please state)

6. Would you like music magazines with extra information and if so Celebrity news or Fashion? (If ticked yes, please tick either Celebrity News or Fashion)

Yes No Celebrity News Fashion

7. Why do you buy music magazines?

Because they interest you

Because they entertain you

8. Which part of the magazine do you prefer?

News Competitions Interviews

Reviews Other (please state)

9. Are you male or female?

Male Female

10. How old are you?

13 – 14 15 – 16 17 – 18

19 +

Narrative

My magazine will follow the typical narrative structure because many people know what they are getting if the typical narrative structure is followed and audiences like the fact that they know what there getting. However, I would break some of the rules but I have decided not to as I risk my target audience not liking my music magazine. But by doing this I am also limiting my market as any people do like different things and can relate to them. My front cover, content page and double page article will follow the typical narrative structure of headings, sub headings and strap lines. These entice the readers to read on and choose which article they want to read.

Genre

The genre my project is going to follow is music magazine. My music magazines genre is pop. Pop is one of the most known genres in the music industry. My music magazine is a hybrid as it is a pop magazine plus celebrity gossip. This is known as genres with sub genres, such as music magazine with lifestyle magazines. I have chosen to do this because most teenagers like music and celebrity gossip, so my magazine will appeal to many teenagers. My target audience is for young girls to teenagers, mainly in the age range of 13-18. I have chosen this age range of 13-18 year old girls as they mainly buy celebrity magazines as they are interested in the fashion and what is happening with their favorite celebrity, also in the ages 13-18 music becomes a major part of their lives so many will buy music magazines. By creating a hybrid music magazine, it means that my audience can buy music magazines with celebrity gossip.
The conventions of my genre are researched. The characters are typical, new girl group, under 20, which can appeal to younger girls as role models. The mise en scene of my genre is young and the style of the new girl group is he latest fashion. The props of my girl group are make-up and jewelry, which are the main props that show the age of the girl group.
The genre I have chosen to research and create my project around is known worldwide. Some of the biggest bands, for example, Girls Aloud and The Saturdays are bands from my genre and they appeal to young girls as well as teenagers as role models and style icons.
My unique selling point is the fact that not many pop magazines are hybrid. Many are just music magazines or music magazines with fashion but not many have celebrity news as their sub genre. Graham Burton comments on how the unique selling point of genres makes the genre text the same but different. He said, “Genres are created through a process of repetition and recognition leading to anticipation and expectation.” Also, Nick Lacey also comments on how genres change. He said, “The same but different.”

Research - Double page article

This is double page article that shows me how a article should be. The use of different pictures and different sizes conveys what the article is about, in this case, it is about Madonna. In this article the use of headlines and subheadings catches the audience and interests them in reading further into the article. The text usually involves witty remarks and puns about their latest album or newest single, puns are used as an artist doesn't feature in an article unless they have something to sell, for example, a new album, new single and a new tour.

This article isn't a interview with the artist in the pictures, instead it is an overview of the artist and what they are promoting. This article uses text grabs to break up the columns, this is used to make the reader read the article as the text grabs are usually brought out of the article at certain points to entice the readers.

This is another article that I have researched to help me with my double page article. This article is an interview with the featured artist, which is Pink. This article has an interview with Pink but before the article starts there is an overview of the singer. However, there is only one big picture with dominates the second page and there is no text grabs which grabs the readers eyes to make them carry on reading the article. This article is promoting the artists new album which is the reason why there is an article on the artist. To entice the readers to reading the article the big picture that dominates the second page grads the readers eye and makes them read the article about the artist.

Research - Content pages

Content pages are very important in magazines as they inform the audience what is in the magazine and where each article is, there are also many pictures to bring attention to the different articles.

The colour's also run from the front covers to the content pages and throughout the magazine. The use of offers and competitions on the content page appeals to more audiences as people who like music, for example, want to win tickets to see Kings of Leon in concert and the use of adding extra information brings wider audiences to the magazine.

The use of bright colours encourages the audience read on to the different stories and by splitting the content page into sections appeals to the audience as they can search what they are interested in without having to go through the whole magazine.

This content page shows the audience which genre the magazine is. It also connects well with the audiences as there is direct address, the content is split into sections and there is use of bright colours. The title of the magazine is also on the contents page which usually will run throughout the magazine. This content page has used images more than text and this appeals to audiences as many readers don't read what is on the contents page and just look at the images to search what they want to look at in the magazine.

Research - Magazine covers

As part of my research for my project, I have looked at different music magazines to see how they attract the customers eyes and appeal to their target audience.

This music magazine appeals to young girls as the Mise en Scene and colours connect to what young girls like. The pink and glittery letters show the youngness of the magazine and the image of Buffy appeals to young girls because her music is for young girls to older teenagers.

Although, the image on front of the magazine appeals to younger girls more than teenagers, the use of subheadings shows the audience what other stories are in the magazine so they can choose which story they want to read. The use of subheadings appeals to the wider audience so other ages will buy the magazine.

By using bold headings and subheadings, they connect with the audience to bring them into the magazine, also by using direct address it also connects the audience with the magazine. By using a strapline at the top of the page, it shows that the magazine is not only a music magazine it is also a fashion magazine which appeals to more audiences.

As my magazine's genre is a pop magazine, I also have a sub-genre with is gossip. As my magazine is for teenage girls, music plus celebrity news is the perfect combination to appeal to all ages of girls, mainly 13-18.

The bold headings and colours which follow the magazine each week appeals to teenage girls as they know that reveal's colours are pink and yellow and all they have to do is look for them colours. The images are off the most famous celebrities at the moment which makes teenage girls want to buy this magazine. The straplines and images appeals to the audience as they know what is going to be in the magazine without reading the content page.

The reason I am researching celebrity gossip magazine helps me to plan what is going to be in my magazine and how to design my front cover.

The use of colours in this music magazine appeals to the younger audiences aswell as the older audiences. The use of direct address drags the audiences into the magazine before they even open the magazine. The image works well with the magazine as the people in the image are very famous at the moment and young to teenage girls want to know what is happening with them.

As this magazine is a music magazine, it also has a sub-genre of gossip and this shows in the image's on the front cover. The different stories and pages in this magazine appeals to the wider audience and this improves profits and sales.