IS SUE 1
J U LY 2 017 W W W . V O C A L S M AGA Z IN E . O . U K
£4.00/$6.50
IN SIDE CONVENTIONS
REPRESENTATION OF SOCIAL GROUPS DISTRIBUTION TARGET AUDIENCE USE OF TECHNOLOGIES PRELIMINARY TASK ’
ww
Evaluation Edition T
his edition of the V (Vocals) magazine is an evaluation edition, where I have to answer seven questions. The first question discusses about codes and conventions, second question about representation of social group, third question about distribution, fourth and fifth questions are both about audiences (in different ways), sixth question is about use of technologies and the seventh question is about preliminary task and the journey to the point o presenting the final product/ magazine. This evaluattion includes images from all the photoshoots and also QR codes to scan and to see what they give you about extra information or even videos that are not included on this evaluation edition magazine. I discuss each question in fullest detail as possible as I trymy best to always answer the questions on my answers. I also describe all the pages that I included on my final product and the reason why I did the layout that is visible on my magazine and how my R&B magazine is a typical music magazine just like any other music magzine but at the same time I gave my own twitch, the kind of modern style but still able to identify that my magazine is a music magazine. For me to be able to produce this magazine and this evaluation, I did get inspired by R&B magazines and othetr magazines that are not R&B. The R&B magazine that inspired me in terms of artist ideas and article base writing was Vibe magazine. And the magazine that is not R&B music magazine was Local Wolves with the simple and clear magazine layout and DIY music magzine with the layout and
the way of present a reviews and artist tours dates (adverts) and the idea how I could produce something with those ideas into my own music magazine.
Clara Barroso
founder/ editor-in-chief
1
- v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k / J u l y 2 017
3
- v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k / J u l y 2 017
Questions 5 Question 1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and convention of real media products?
Vocals Magazine
9 QUESTION 2 How does media product represent particular social group?
13 QUESTION 3 What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?
15 QUESTION 4 Who would be the audience for your media product?
17 QUESTION 5 How did you attract/address your audience?
19 QUESTION 6 What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing the product?
21 QUESTION 7 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Editor’s Note
Hello! This months V (Vocals) magazine is a special issue, we have also offered an extra special edition magazine issue for the special fans. We have included an article of a very talented solo R&B artist Lisandra Silva and her background story of her getting up to the point she is right now with her career. I amn very happy with this issue as it is my experiment to take the photo for the main article and for also the front cover since we had certain staff that left this company. Anyways hope you like the photos and make sure you check out our social networking sites for the latests updates and previews. in last note, I am very pleased of how the V (Vocals) team came out with such a big success thoughout the past year. For that don’t miss out the offers in our website. Have a great rest of the month everybody!
Clara Barroso
Apps
There are many different ways you can enjoy our magazine instead of holding anc carrying around a hard copy, have you ever thoughtabout using our apps which we have? It basically means you can read our magazine through your phone and don’t have to worry about holding/leaving your magazine anywhere you travel. Well it’s free anyway so it’s worth giving it a shot, it’s a whole new way of reading a a magazine! The only thing you need is the magazine code which is at the back of the issue, enter that in the V (Vocals) Magazine application and it will instantly download a readable copy on to your phone!
Subscribe
Have you ever had an idea of subscribing to V (Vocals)? If you haven’t, you should because from now on, we’re making an discount for the first year that you subscribe to the V (Vocals) magazine. To subscribe, all you need to do is just to go to our website and there would be a dedicated link for the subscription. Also in other ways to be able to subscribe to our magazine is by visiting our website or even our social nretworking sites which will have links on ways to subscribe and be part of V (Vocals) clan. So why not going and check out our website: www.vocalsmagazine.co.uk or our social media:
J u l y 2 017 / v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k -
4
Question
1
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS? From the start of the course I had an idea of what I
wanted to do and the genre that I wanted to do for this course. I chose to do an magazine based on the genre; R&B. I decided to do this genre because it was a really easy one when to know what should be added and mentioned on the magazine. However, because the use of the props that you see on a typical R&B music magazine are very expensive (and are usually things you would only see in very famous places , such as; LA Hollywood or even New York) I was very limited on what to use around the model and even the locations that provided me from where I live. However, when it came to pick an outfit or something, it was quite
Lisandra Silva
xx
easy from all the different variety of pieces f clothing from the model’s wardrobe and from my wardrobe too, in case if the model didn’t have a specific piece of clothes that I would want to be in one of the photo shoots/ shots. So, I would say that my magazine is a typical magazine from all the other R&B music magazines, such as Vibe and Billboard (by the use of R&B artists on the magazine). For the reason to say that my magazine is a typical magazine, would be by the choice of my model, that is easy to recognize which genre my magazine would be. The type of R&B music that I was trying to portray on my magazine was; old school, soul, hip-hop and also including a bit of disco and contemporary R&B. From this wise choice of types of R&B music genres that I was including in my magazine, was very small choice once to pick a model that would represent the magazine perfectly and that would link with the codes and conventions of a typical R&B music magazine. During my research about other magazines, from the start of the course when we had to have a idea of the genre we wanted to do, one of the magazines that really inspired me was Vibe magazine (one of the most known R&B magazines) and all the models singers tat represented their magazine front cover each month, is always an R&B artist that is dark skinned or even light brown skinned, the proper Classic R&B style magazine. That’s exactly the type of codes and conventions I would want to aim for my magazine and for my target audience to recognize/ identify my magazine with. From not having a wise choice that was either dark skinned or light brown skinned but not too old (so the model had a link to my primary and secondary target audience between age) I chose my best friend, Lisandra Silva to be my main model for the whole magazine, because of the small choice to fit the codes and conventions, uses and gratifications and also my target audience.
“Lisandra was the only model I wanted to focus on.� I only made my magazine focuses on the my best friend, she is originally 17 years old but because I had specific hair styles and makeup styles to go with specific outfits, on the photo shoots of my magazine, she looked older from her original age, which was exactly what I was aiming for so the target audience would interact with the magazine and wanting to read the article on the magazine. Because she was the perfect model for my whole magazine, I decided to create this magazine (or the on first nineteen pages base on her) which it still links to a typical R&B music magazine from the codes and conventions because of I created a full magazine it would be over 100 pages long, as my magazine would only be release monthly and would have a different variety of types of R&B music genres, which would make my magazine look professional.
J u l y 2 017 / v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k -
6
My magazine would have the conventions of any other music magazine by the identity of the types of conventions used on the front cover. As an example, the use of the conventions on a front cover, that my magazine front cover would include would be something like; masthead cover lines, date/price, issue number, bar code, website URL, headline and sub headline about the full bleed image. I wouldn’t include more than that on my front cover because my magazine layout is a very modern magazine and dedicated to an older target audience so simplicity is key at this point of my magazine. My magazine still is identified to the conventions of an normal music magazine by the use of the double page of contents page , which is what normally what a magazine has, either a single or a double page of contents page, but music magazines usually attend to go for the use of the double page. My magazine also includes a double page of where is an introduction to the article about the artist, which this page still goes with the conventions of an normal music magazine because it’s still seen on any magazine, not just R&B. I also included two double pages of arti-
7
- v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k / J u l y 2 017
cle about the artist with images, page numbers, pull quotes and also the article itself. After the double page of article, I also did a double page of Q&A article about Lisandra Silva answering questions asked by the fans through the social media via Twitter which still identifies to the conventions of a magazine by the use of the social media to interact the with the target audience and to seek information out of them so the audience can still be updated with information about the next magazine issue that is released at the end of the month, the social media keeps the target audience in touch with the magazine as there’s a massive different in terms of time between each month, a way to keep the audience interested with the magazine. This is because my primary and secondary audience, use social media as their daily basis to get information and to see information, which is the same with my magazine and keeping them informed with the next magazine and R&B artist news. The next double page on my magazine is more a collage page where is simply has two Polaroid shots and a black and white landscape shot of the model/singer modelling on the sofa looking directly at the
priate for my target audience. The next double page is the introduction to the album reviews, this page ins really effective, especially to talk about the number one album. On this page I photographed ‘Ross Ocean’ (as a long shot in black and white to fit the codes and conventions of a magazine) and created the album cover ‘Mystery’ as I also included a small article about the artist and the album and the whole ‘behind the scenes meaning and explanation of the creation on this album. As it is number one album it deserves to take double page space. The next double page on my magazine includes one page with reviews from the magazines (Vocals) best albums in the R&B industry from the big artist names from different type of R&B which demonstrates how wise my magazine can be. This single page of reviews includes the continuous list of the best 20 albums, from the first double page of reviews. This fits the codes and conventions of a typical R&B and any other type of magazine by the use of information and different artists on my magazine, which demonstrates how wide my music magazine is in the R&B music industry. This is the reason why I did page dedicated to do a page dedicated to the other artist, so it wouldn’t be all about Lisandra Silva. This page shows the conventions of being a typical magazine by having different information from different artist, a different variety of them. The page nest to it, it’s like a box out, even though it’s tour dates for Lisandra Silva tour in November 2017 in only in the u.k, I made it to look like a box out copy page so it still has conventions of other typical magazines for adding an advert on my magazine about an R&B music artist that has been mentioned before on my magazine. I used a different variety of shots, such as; close-up, mid-close-up, mid-shot and long shot. I used all theses types of shots on my magazine as it was the most common shots that I would see on a magazine while I was doing my research. For example; when I was researching for front covers to analyse, I came across from my research that in music magazines, mid-shots or close-ups attend to appear more often than any other type of shot. That’s what I tried to re-create on my magazine front cover so my magazine front cover would look like a typical music magazine front cover. There is an magazine that is called ‘V’ but it’s a fashion magazine, the difference between the reason why of having the ‘V’ on my front cover is because is the initial of my magazine, as the masthead still appears on the top left corner. It also gives the front page a better composition and it also makes it easier for my primary and secondary target audience to identify the magazine by the layout of the front page being the same for all the other front cover’s for my music magazine.
“My magazine meets the conventions of a typical music magazine.” camera, from the second photo shoot, where on my blog it also includes a video from behind the scenes of it so its a method of using social media to interact the magazine itself with social media for the target audience to see ‘extras’/’bonus’ for the magazine itself. On the same page it also includes all the shout outs to all the staff to produce this photo shoot and also including a pull quote and the signature of the singer, which the idea of using a font that looks like a hand writing makes the magazine look modern and appro-
J u l y 2 017 / v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k -
8
9
- v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k / J u l y 2 017
Question
2
HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUP?
As a printed hard copy my media product would be really thick and contain a lot of different pages all from the different sub genres, such as; hip-hop, old school, soul R&B (which are the main three). However it would also still include disco, neo-soul, contemporary R&B and many others types of R&B in only one issue each month. So as my social group is a high social group from older age, which wouldn’t really involve teenagers (accept the 17 years old) the type of material that I would include and mention about would only interest the social group from my primary and secondary target audience and also perhaps older audience from over the age 26, but I would know that it wouldn’t be such a big impact/ percentage as my primary and secondary audience (my specific social group). My whole magazine is only focused on one musician, Lisandra Silva, the 20 year old solo female artist. I chose her to be the model/ singer because I wanted to make my R&B magazine as identified and recognized to the R&B genre only.
“My magazines has a variety of R&B music as my social group has a variety of different ages.”
M
y media product, music magazine has a particular social group. This would be aimed at fans that listen to R&B daily on their daily basis and enjoy good old R&B playlists, which involve old school, soul and hip-hop R&B. This is all aimed at my particular social group, which is females from the age of 17-24 that are aspires with their choice of music in the R&B music genre, which would be specifically hip-hop R&B. My media product is also aimed and represented on my other half of social group, which would be males from the age of 18-6 that are main streamers and love old school and soul R&B music artist, which is one of the sub genres for my music magazine with in the idea of the R&B genre overall, with a different variety of everything within the genre. That would be the idea of my social group as a whole one and how they would have a specific music taste, which in this perspective would be R&B in a whole magazine (my media product) but with different sub genres that all come from R&B.
J u l y 2 017 / v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k -
10
And I wanted to link to the codes and conventions as the idea of the use of the model has a light brown skin colour or very tan skin colour. So I chose her for her beautiful light brown colour skin and her background and her family background, as also she is a big fan of R&B music herself, so as the process of making this magazine, I would her from her of what she knew about R&B with her knowledge and helped me on the understanding of R&B music and to improve through this course and to make it as simple for the target audience to engage with the magazine as possible. Another reason why I chose Lisandra Silva to be the model would of been with the idea, that my primary audience has a higher percentage in terms of reader and consumer to purchase one of my magazines compared to my secondary audience. Because my primary audience is mainly females and from my survey results my potential target audience, chose for a solo female artist to be on the front cover of the magazine, so I chose Lisandra Silva, as her age is very similar and is the same age range as my primary target audience (it’s and age between my primary target audience) which had a higher change for my audience to grow with the chose of the model. There was a lot of mise-en-scene to discuss through my magazine and all the shots that I’ve used from all of my photo shoots. I used a different variety of props and one of them was a guitar (as it’s seem on my second photo shoot). A guitar is always dedicated to music and I fell like by using a guitar in the background or within the shot it would be linking to the typical codes and conventions of a music magazine, so I decided to include on mine so the audience can recognize that it’s a music magazine. The use of the guitar links with the model/singer as she’s a solo female artist and a guitar usually links to the simplicity of doing music by her self. Also the guitar links to the R&B genres which are mainly soul, old school, pop and including hip-hop R&B music genre. The guitar also talks about her personality as the guitar is located n her room and a bed room usually ‘talks’ and gives a true reflection of the singer personality as the shot would also link to the article that describes everything to the audience as they found more information about the singer and everything links to her from what’s on display on the shot. Another piece of equipment from the props was a keyboard (as it’s seem on my second photo shoot). The use of the keyboard on the shot also links to the idea of being describing her personality but also the idea of the keyboard being linking to the R&B music genre, which would be; soul and old school. The keyboard itself would have reference to her style of music and to give an idea how independent the solo female artist is with her music and how independent she is with writing her own lyrics. The keyboard being displayed on the bed also links to the idea of what is
11
- v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k / J u l y 2 017
written on the article with her process of her growing and achieving her dream on becoming and music artist, within the R&B music industry. The acoustic guitar links to the traditional rhythm within her music and how she can be visualized as a traditionalist with in the R&B music genre and her own music style that she portrays to the primary and secondary audience in the magazine. The third piece of equipment that I used for being part of my props was a mirror from the close-up shot from a long angle that I used for my contents page (as this shot belongs to the first photo shoot I done with the model/ singer). I decided to use a big mirror right next to the model/singer to create a reflection and to look more R&B music like within the style and the look of ‘bling’ which links to codes and convention from an R&B music magazine, which is exactly what I was trying to portray in this shot. As I had a visual idea of how I wanted my model to look as I thought of using this kind of shot for my contents page for my whole double page spread as the whole magazine is only focusing on her. And the last piece of equipment that I’ve used as part of the props was a condenser microphone (from the third photo shoot that happened in the schools property, in the studio). The use of the condenser microphone was to reflect the idea of giving that old school look to the shots as she sang and I was capturing the movement that she would create in front of the camera. In this specific shot, the condenser microphone is the only thing that is focused as it’s the subject matter of the whole shot as the model/singer is out of focus. The use of the condenser microphone is to reflect on the singers personality and her quality of music and music style and lyrics, as her music is very personal to herself. The reason of the use of the microphone is to reflect back on the old school R&B music genre (as it was the only microphone that had the most identical look to an old school singing microphone, that you would be able to find around the 1990’s, the classic ones that the R&B artists at the time would use to perform. In total, with all the photo shoots together and the final look on the magazine. You would be able to realize that the model had four different costumes, some of them are identical, but it’s been done for a purpose, that is the same way that her music is identical to other types of R&B music genres. The idea of having four different costumes overall on the magazine, is so it didn’t look repetitive with the poses she was creating in front of the camera. One of the important costumes that there is on the whole magazine is the costume that you see on the front cover. This is the most important one because its the costume that ‘talks/ describes’ the model/singer and her music to the target audience, sh would be the one promoting the mag-
“Lisandra Silva was the perfect example as a model of an R&B artist.” azine for the whole month, so the first costume fits perfectly with the target audience (and so do the other outfits), as if the target audience are getting a first impression of the person on the cover by the way they’re dressed. On the first costume the first thing that she wore was a bodysuit. The bodysuit is not very visible but it’s a dark blue bodysuit so it would link to her dark colour hair. This shot is a mid-close up, so the use of only the body suit doesn’t portray that much attention to the view as it just looks like a normal top and it’s not portraying any sort of ‘sexy’ look as she’s also just simply looking at the camera, as if the camera is the reader, so she would be looking directly at the reader, that could be aimed for females or males. The second thing she wore on top of it was the faux fur coat. One of the reasons why I used a faux fur coat as one of the pieces of clothes for her to wear for the this shot for the front cover is because the use of the colours on the faux fur coat links to the colour scheme, especially the gold colour and also the faux fur coat contrasts with the bubble gum and her light brown skin. I also used this coat because it’s one of the types of coats that would have the idea of the singer/model being rich (as its one of the fur coats that you see the solo females singers wear) so it would fit perfectly with the singers personality. Then I also added a but of bling onto the costume with a choker. The use of the shiny thick choker portrays the idea of bling and attention to the artist, that the model/ singer is trying to get from the reader. The idea of ‘bling’ would relate to the R&B music genre, as R&B music artist usually portray their own style with some shiny including. The use of the choker also completes her style as it also contrasts with the bubble gum and also her light brown skin colour. The choker also gives the singer/model the idea of classy as she would represent old school/ hip-hop R&B music genre. And last but not least, as I was capturing these shots I purchase some bubble gum and made that part of the costume. The use of the bubble gum was to complete the look for the singer/model so the reader can see her on the front cover and have the feeling of her style being ‘sassy’ by the pose of her face but also at the same time the bubble gum that giver her type of ‘diva’ and ‘sexy’ style just being identifying her as a R&B solo female artist. The use of the bubble gum gets the attention from the audience as then the viewers eyes draws to the wink that the model/singer was making at the camera, which in this aspect it would be the reader. Most of the body language on the whole photo shoots, but just in general are over posed to the camera but the model
is either looking at the camera, as if the camera would be the reader, so the final shot would look like as if the model would be making direct eye contact with the reader through the magazine, or looking away from the camera which would link to the idea of the singer trying to be herself or even also being ‘sassy’ or ‘sexy’. Also one of the body language that is not so visible is the one with the her eyes closed (which was mainly captured on the third photo shoot) as she looked through the camera to be concentrated on what she was singing as all the final shots looks like shes performing on a stage. On the other hand when it comes to discuss the facial expression, it would all depend on the certain pose that the model would me making in front of the camera. Most of the facial expressions of all the whole photo shoots, were mainly just being looking serious, or event trying to look sexy in front of the camera with the bubble gum and the winks to the camera, also the smiles and laughs to the camera and the facial expressions with the eyes close that make her look concentrated about what she does and how calm she is with her career overall. All theses facial expressions and body language of the model shows a representation of who she is and how real she tries to be in front of the camera about the way she is and what the model wants to approach to the target audience and what she wants the target audience to think about her also about what she mentioned on the article. I would also say that my magazine is a pure R&B magazine, not just by the use of the colour schemes but also the artists that are chosen and featured on my magazine and to keep the R&B genre on my magazine as visible as possible to the audience and easy for the target audience to get influenced by. With this I mean the idea of the use of poses that the model is portraying through the magazine, which would make her seem as ‘cool’ for some poses and for other poses she would be portraying ‘sexy’ or even ‘diva’. As the article and the Q&A was written and answered on an informal way. The audience would most likely to read the article and to feel some sort of connection between the artist and the magazine itself, they would start using the magazine as a personal and identity purpose, which would link to the uses and gratifications. The tone through the whole magazine, has an R&B vibe, which allows for the audience to identify the magazine easily but also for the magazine itself to recognize the primary and the secondary audience of the magazine really easily. My music magazine would have a lot included on each issue has, the magazine is only published monthly.
J u l y 2 017 / v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k -
12
Question
3
“Bauer Media UK is an entertainment network.”
WHAT KIND OF INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY? T
he publishing house that I chose and the media institution that I will be picking is Bauer Media Group. I chose Bauer Media Group because that have the experience of publishing music magazines, but from my research they have never published an R&B music magazine brand,that’s my main reason why I chose my publishing house to be Bauer Media Group as they wouldn’t have a problem with it and it wouldn’t have any sort of conflict or problem between any other magazine brand that Bauer Media Group publishes. Selecting Bauer Media Group is a popular choice and this institution has been a successful in the past and till today it is still very successful and known. It’s a publishing brand that is still growing each day and publishing even more each day,
which in my opinion it would be a good choice for my magazine to be as successful as the very know magazine brands that are very successful till this day. The magazine brands that Bauer Media Group has published are; Empire, Q and Closer. As they are very well known and they are nothing compared to my R&B magazine as firstly the genre of the magazine doesn’t link at all to ant of those magazine brands and that secondly the potential colour combination for my magazine doesn’t link or connect with any of the three magazine brands that are published by Bauer Media Group. The reason why I chose Bauer Media Group to publish my music magazine as there shouldn’t be any problems of being able to publish my magazine as there wouldn’t be any competition against any other magazine brand because my genre and target audience is totally different with some of magazine brands like Empire but very similar just like with the Q magazine brand, as they are both music magazine but completely different brands. I want my magazine to have a modern but still classy layout so it can still portray the idea of R&B magazine ad how it would also link to the colour combination for the whole magazine.
13
- v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k / J u l y 2 017
This would relate to the whole idea of the magazine being all focusing in one genre of music which would be R&B and the fact that the magazine issue would also be focusing on an female artist can also represent the idea that my magazine can turn out to be an R&B magazine that fits in with the articles of upcoming music artists. This can link to my audience as they’re always looking or new artist as they are mainly aspires and love R&B music which is the genre they are mostly interested and mainly listen to. Bauer Media Group is the publisher that I would like to use to publish my magazine as they seem to never publish and R&B magazine before, so it would be a different experi-
ence for them but interesting with not being scared of the publishing as their previous publishing was very successful. The reason why I chose it is because I wan my magazine magazine to have a layout, colour combinations and fonts would be totally different from the other magazines that Bauer media has published before, which turns out to be a good experience for the publishing company. Hopefully my magazine will be as successful as the other magazines that are published by Bauer Media Group. This would be easy to also grow my target audience for primary and secondary audience and for my music magazine to engage with the magazine and everything that is presented on the magazine.
J u l y 2 017 / v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k -
14
M
y primary target audience has more engagement with my music magazine as it is also more important than my secondary audience, as my secondary audience has less engagement with the magazine and it has less readers compared to my primary audience. My primary audience for my R&b music magazine is 17-24 years old, ABC1 females, that are aspires (according to my survey results 40% are aspires) who love R&B music and beyond that type of music especially hip-hop R&B (with the total of 42.86% from my survey) and old school R&B (with the total of 34.29% from my survey) and also care on the way they look and the way they’re viewed. They are usually interested in new music/artists in R&B and regularly buying new R&B music CDS and going to gigs, looking after themselves and buying music products just like headphones to just impress the audience and to just be welcomed on the target audience for the R&B magazine. My target audience is female because the genre articles in my magazine will attract predominant female audience because female audience will prefer more into solo female R&B artists and their personal’s life as an artist. However, this doesn’t stop the males from disliking it because they’re couple of males that appreciate solo female singers and also like to know about their life too, especially the way their being represented on the magazine. It will get the males
15
- v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k / J u l y 2 017
attention faster if the model/singer is being portrayed in a ‘sexy’ way. Moreover the house styles an the fonts used in my magazine will have to be very eye-catchy for both genders as they’re both part of my target audience. This will get their attention by the use of the colour, such as; black, white, gold, rose gold, silver and maybe also some use of the colour red. Also it will have to be set out in a very structured way o represent personality. My audience is aspires but also explores (as according to my survey results 31.43% are explorers) because they are also seeking for new music in one specific genre which is R&B. This means that they might be collectors of R&B (especially old school R&B and hip-hop R&B) CDs and accessories and therefore they would be interested in R&B music magazines that usually feature up coming artists just like mine. Moreover they could be interested in R&B gigs, for example Rihanna or Ariana Grande, and then they will want to purchase my magazine as it will have information about up-coming artists, especially solo artist and their singles, with the interest of knowing the artist better and their music. My target audience will buy my magazine as they want to know all the key information about the main R&B solo artists that is mainly focusing for that monthly issue and also what’s happening in the R&B industry, what new releases there are and who’s becoming the most known in the R&B industry. They will also be interested in the new media and gadgets as they are closely related to music.
Question
4
WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT? My secondary audience is 18-26 year old ABC1 males, mainstreamers who love R&B music (especially old school and soul R&B music) are interested in new media and regularly go to gigs and always know what’s happening with music genre they listen to, which is R&B. Everything for my secondary audience is the same, apart the genres of type of R&B music and the genders which change slightly. As they are male they are more likely to want to see old school R&B music (with a total of 34.29%) or even a bit of soul R&B music (with a total of 14.29%) in my magazine, as it would only happen on rare occasions, as its
also set to an older male age range. Therefore this is why they’re my secondary audience as they won’t always buy the magazine, for example; a subscription and just buy the occasional copy if it has an articles about the band/ singer that they are interested in. However my secondary audience will probably still be interested in he gadgets and new media that my magazine will contain, but they won’t waste their money on the whole magazine when they are only going to care about half or small amount that the whole magazine would contain.
“My main readers are females.”
J u l y 2 017 / v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k -
16
Question
5
HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE? T
he way that I appealed to my target audience, primary and secondary audience was by the chosen model that I chose for my R&B music magazine, which was Lisandra Silva, a 20 year old solo female R&B artist. The chose model would interact the magazine with the target audience (as the main model/ singer is 20 year old and my primary audience is from the age of 17-24 years old and my secondary audience is from the age of 18-26 years old) and also by the use of informal language within the article, as it would create a connection with the reader and the main model by the article being written in an informal way, the type of way the reader would be comfortable to read and it would persuade them to purchase one of my magazines each month. My music magazine contains sell lines from a variety from current different artists from the R&B music genre. My cover lines include information about current solo female R&B artists such as; Rihanna, Ariana Grande, including Lisandra Silva (as the solo female artist was one of the highest requests on my survey results, with the amount of 60.61%). Not just solo female artists, I made sure I included R&B bands (boy bands and girl bands) to sell my magazine in fairly way as it was the most requested thing my target audience wanted to see on my magazine, with the result of 15.15% (for girl bands) and 6.06% (for boy bands) on my survey result. The boy band that I decided to mention on my magazine is the new up-coming boy band in the R&B genre, MiC LOWRY. And the girl band that I decided to mention on my magazine is the most known girl band in the R&B music genre, Fifth Harmony. I decided to add a girl band and a boy band on my sell lines along with the rest of the information about the solo female artists so the magazine can be insured to be sold successfully and engage the readers to promote the magazine and talk about the magazine within family and friends (as my primary audience is female and my secondary audience is male) and to grow the target audience. The way that I made the sell lines attractive to the buyer was by the use of my colour scheme that is equally aimed for female and male readers as the my colour combination is very neutral and are colours that would make my target audience simply know that my music magazine is an R&B music magazine just by
17
- v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k / J u l y 2 017
the use of the use of three colour combination which are; white, black and gold. The use of the colour gold reflects told gold and the idea of rich and pure R&B music style. And the use of the colour black and white are just the most common colour that would go well together with the colour gold and the idea of the use f colours that you would commonly see an R&B artist use for their music artwork and also relates to the use of ‘black and white’ in terms of pictures. This is the main reason that I would use these three colour combination (black, white and gold) as it would relate to the idea of being directly aimed at the primary and secondary audience equally (even though my primary readers are higher in percentage compared to my secondary audience). Discussing the Uses and Gratification theory, before I went any further with starting with the make of my magazine, I decided to make sure what my target audience would use my magazine for, so as part of my research on my survey task, my question nine was “What do you use music magazines for?” I asked this question so I could have a clear view of what the primary and secondary target audience would want to see in a music magazine and which would still allow to do use my magazine what way they want to use it or even for a guide or just representing someone else personality, something that means a lot to them, visualizing music, especially R&B music as a hobby. With the results that I collected from question nine I found out what I could include and how I could layout my music magazine and overall, just to know where to go next. Few days later after analyzing my results, I came out to discover that 91.18% use the magazine for entertainment, 73.53% use the magazine for information (to learn more about the artist and the music industry), when 55.88% use the magazines to be part of their identity (their part of their personality, so the idea that they buy or they have a subscription to that magazine brand that they get each month) and finally 55.88% use the magazine for social interactions and to communicate with people around them, beginning a friendship from something they have in common.As looking at my results and seeing that entertainment and information are the mostly use method of the use of magazines compared to identity and social interaction from the audience that answered my survey , I will be mainly focusing my magazine on entertainment and information.
“I think my magazine portrays the R&B style really well and clear.�
J u l y 2 017 / v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k -
18
Throughout the course, I use a different variety of professional equipment; such as cameras, lighting equipment and software to make the final product. For all the process of research, planning and drafting, I used mainly PowerPoint to present my work and to seem as the highest standard as possible. Also when it came to create videos I would use the software, Adobe Premiere, which is one of the best software’s to edit and create videos with the clips that I’ve filmed for my behind the scenes. When it came to work with Adobe Premiere I didn’t have any problems because I already had experience with the software before, when I used during GCSE when I was doing media studies. For when it came to edit the photo shoots I used Adobe Photoshop to edit them and to add filters on them. I mainly edited them into black and white accept for a few shots, just like the one on the front cover. I also added filters onto the pictures, especially ‘lens flare’ and ‘lighting effects’ on the third photo shoot so the pictures looked like they we’re captured on a stage while the model performed. On all the pictures that I edited I used the ‘clone tool’ and the ‘spot healing brush tool’ to clear any spots on the face or body, I also used the ‘dodge tool’ on the model’s eyes to make them more bright and shiny once edited (as I used a gold/ silver reflector on the first and second photo shoot). I also used the ‘burn tool’ on any edges that had to be burnt, this could be edges of the body or areas of the picture/ surroundings. On every shot that I edited I also used the ‘sharpen tool’ to make the shot
19
- v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k / J u l y 2 017
sharper and with that I also would use the ‘brightness/contrast’, ‘levels’, ‘curves’ and if that specific shot had to edited in colour I would also use the ‘colour balance’ tool. Also, not forgetting the one tool that I definitely used when editing each shot from the photo shoots that I would use on my final product or evaluation, is the ‘crop’ too which helped me to give a better composition to the picture. I used different variety of equipment during the process of making the final product and also all the research, planning and drafting during the course. I have used a Canon EOS 700D Digital SLR Camera to capture my pictures during the photo shoot. The price is for the camera is £458.95, including 1855mm STM Lens, it is expensive and it is my own camera. For the first and the second photo shoot (the ones that happened at the photographers and the models house) I didn’t want to use the schools camera, as I was more comfortable when it came to do photo shoots outside of school with my own equipment. At the end, as I used my own equipment, it was easier for me to access the pictures once they we’re captured. The camera is black and the make is a Canon. For me it was really easy to use a professional camera to take pictures for my magazine, as I do photography as a hobby on my daily basis. I purchased the camera and the lenses from John Lewis and as I said before, it was really easy for my to use this camera as I’m used to it from
Question
6
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THE PRODUCT? doing it as a hobby and I also do photography as an A-Level subject so I was trying my best to capture the best shots so it shows what I have learnt from both subjects, photography and media studies together. For my third photo shoot, I released it in the schools studio as I was trying to capture shots using the paper provided in the media department. Because I’m used to use the make Canon, I used the schools camera to release this photo shoot, however I didn’t have as much access to it as the camera belonged to the school so I had to borrow it and to take the pictures I took on the same day to use it on my magazine. The camera that I used was Canon EOS 100D Digital SLR Camera with the EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III Zoom Lens, so I could capture good focused shots of the model as she was the subject matter of the whole photo shoot. This camera was an easy camera to get my head around it as it was very similar to the one I own (Canon EOS 700D) but the only difference is the ability of flipping the screen (which you’re not able to do it with this camera ) and also the idea of the camera having a quite big difference when it comes to camera size between one another. My other equipment was when I used a black back drop (canvas) for my third photo shoot, that I released in the schools studio as the first and the second photo shoot was based on specific locations. For this photo shoot I wanted to look classy and old school like by the model being herself in front of the camera with a black back drop. R&B magazines are very ‘bling’ like with places where they seem extremely expensive to release a photo shoot for example; in a place like Los Angeles or even New York . Places where I wouldn’t have the ability to be able to release it at all. So the idea of the use of the black back drop to seem like as if shes on the stage performing as the photographer captures the shot. Because using a black back drop makes the shoots look very dark I used quite few studio lights to create a nice black and white contrast with the black back drop. On my first two photo shoots I was mainly using natural light but on the photo shoot that happened on the studio, lights was a such a major part of the any photos that I captured and I was lucky enough to experience shooting with professional lighting and equipment. The lights which I used were Interfilt Stellarx 300. They cost around about £200 which meant that I had to be careful to not break anything as it was also media department equipment, so I was just borrowing for that photo shoot. The lighting was perfect as I didn’t want much light going on so the back drop wads still pure
black and the light wasn’t too harsh on the models face as she modeled in front of the camera. By using theses lights and the umbrellas it made the pictures look professionally done, especially once I knew how I wad going to edit and the final look that I want the pictures to have. One light was on as the other light were just there to support in terns of the use of the flash on the shots. I used it this was so there wouldn’t be any unwanted shadows on the pictures while I was shooting the model. For my first and second photo shoot, I was working with natural light as I also used a gold reflector (on my first photo shoot) and a silver reflector (on my second photo shoot). This reflector that I used for my shoots, is from my own photography equipment that I own along with my camera. I purchased this reflector from Amazon and the price was around £10. It was a good deal to purchase this reflector as it is a really big size reflector and the fact that it allows to give sop much light through the camera when I’m mainly capturing models. I had this reflector a while back and one of the reasons of why I purchased in the first place was because I do photography as a hobby but especially portraiture, which is my strongest area in photography in my opinion. By using the reflector on my photo shoots it made each individual shot so much clearer and with such a professional looking with no editing added at this point. To edit my photography from all the photo shoot I used Adobe Photoshop CC CS6, to edit my behind the scenes clip I used Adobe Premiere CC CS6 and to make my magazine from scratch I used Adobe InDesign CC CS6 . Theses three software are very handy when it came to make my whole coursework professional looking at possible. The good side of it is that, as I took media studies as a subject in my GCSE, I already knew how to work with them perfectly. As I knew what I was doing, I had the ability to get my work done faster, also the idea that I could also help the others in the class that struggled when it came to use these software as it was their first time ever using it. Overall, the benefits of making my magazine with professional equipment and software’s is that my coursework and final product and evaluation would be in a industry standard. This standard is the standard that most professional people must know how to work with theses software’s in the media industry so being an A-Level student and creating a product up to their standard it tells the other people the amount of knowledge I know about the use of professional equipment and software’s. J u l y 2 017 / v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k -
20
Question
7
LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TAST, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT? A
t the start of this AS media course, we we’re faced with the first practice task, which was to produce a school magazine. On this practice task, preliminary task, we had to create the magazine including; taking our own photos, creating a layout and designing a front cover and contents page. Reflecting back at my preliminary task and comparing to my music magazine that I have now completed. Comparing both of them together, I can tell that there is a significant difference in the quality of them and the final highlights how my media skills have improved through this how I processed and developed between then and now, which I like to call it the ‘journey’. The first task we had to complete when we were creating our school magazine was to take some photos of my friends, as my school magazine was a Haydon School magazine which I maned it after ‘Haydon Update’ which was also a Sixth Form Special Edition magazine issue. These photos we’re taken within our lesson time and very limited on what shots I could include as its a school magazine and it mine had a specific audience which was only year 12 & 13. This is very different to the way that I took the photos for my R&B music magazine. For the photos for my preliminary task it was fairly straight forward ans simple as I took around 20 photographs of the school around and the models dressed in smart/casual dress code uniform without any props or lighting. This is very different to my music magazine
21
- v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k / J u l y 2 017
because for my preliminary task I only had to do a front cover and a double page contents page and I was very limited with what to do and what to include in such a small amount of time. When it came to create the front cover and the contents page on inDesign, it wasn’t a problem with me because I still had the skill from GCSE when I did magazines in year 11. In comparison to when we started to do the course once we finished the preliminary task we had to much creative freedom because we had the choice to choose what music genre we wanted our magazine to look look like and what magazines I wanted to look at to research and get inspired by. I also got told that for the final product I only had to do a front page, double contents page, and a double page for the article but because I had written so much for my magazine and I had so much planned, I wanted to show my skills further so I did three double pages of article and three other double pages on my magazine with different things so it shows variety within my music magazine genre, R&B. In my opinion my skills got so much better in comparison from my preliminary task till my final magazine, I developed on how to look and explain and representing everything in many different ways that shows my understanding, knowledge and process within the media studies course. I am very pleased with the outcomes of all individual task which represents my maximum effort on it and how I processed with my skills in AS Media Studies.
“I have learnt how to go further with my skills from the start of the journey.�
22
J u l y 2 017 / v o ca l s m a g a z i n e . co . u k -