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

My magazine develops on the conventions of contemporary music magazines as I followed a simple house style throughout the whole of the magazine by sticking to simple colours all the way throughout the magazine Purple, Yellow, Black and White. I had chose colours that wouldn’t have appeared to be bias as when I had conducted my questionnaire I found out through some of the answers that I had received that many music magazine readers thought that certain colours would imply certain things about a magazine, such as light pink would suggest a young girl as the reader. Also I had used one magazine throughout to analyse this is where I got my ideas from when it came to creating a house style for my magazine for example like on my contents page I had used the idea of putting each article in my magazine into an area out of news, feature and reviews. This made it easy understandable and avoided confusion with the reader. I developed on the conventions as the magazine is for Musical Theatre lovers, they are usually very creative and unique in what they do whether it be singing, acting or dancing. So for each page I had created a subtle background of various rectangle shapes and instead of having the title at the top of the page I had put it in the centre fold of the magazine. However when doing this I had to make sure that the writing didn’t appear right in the middle of the centre fold so that it could still be read.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

There are various social groups represented in my magazine, it isn't for a particular youth tribe.
However you’re less likely to see "chavs/gangsters" wanting to pick up my magazine, as they are often seen to be not of the higher class, and be part of such activities that may be featured in my music magazine. Where as a social group of people that may be like "yuppies" that are mainly in a upper class would prefer to read this magazine as they may take part in social activities once in a while that may be included or I have written about. They may have a hobbies that include either singing, dancing or acting which are part of the musical theatre spectrum or with the family they may take a trip to the theatre every once in a while. The psychographic for people who may like to read my magazine as they would like to recreate themselves and go into a new direction of things and maybe develop themselves as a person e.g. gain more confidence unlike the mainstreamers as Musical Theatre isn’t the most popular genre of dance, not many people may pay particular interest into it and wouldn’t want to step outside the box.

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

The type of media institutions that could possibly publish my magazine are cinemas, they often show musical movies featuring famous celebrities that could possibly be featured in an issue of my magazine. Theatres because they often will have a direct link as it is musical theatre, and often in my article I will be publishing an article or a competition that is possibly being written or advertised in my magazine, so it could alternatively work in our favour. I publish them and they could promote me. Another media institution that could possible publish my magazines are very popular dance companies such as Pineapple or Bloch, dance companies may relate to them as the often include articles about "ordinary" people who happen to be in the industry and could be going through a same situation or maybe interested in what people just like them who are in the same competitive industry are getting up to. Also due to funding so that the magazine doesn’t get wasted in terms of the production side of things. Schools and Colleges who do performing arts could subscribe to the magazine at a small fee and hand out to those who wish to have a copy just like what they do with the Stage newspaper.
I feel that my music magazine may appear in news agents as musical theatre, isn't the most popular kind of genre. The magazine may start off a low price, but as the popularity of the magazine may increase the price may also increase, then moving onto bigger stores. A store such as HMV as they usually have so much going on under one roof, like now cinemas, arcades and cafes. HMV caters for all different genres including the most popular to the least favourable on the market.
I would like my magazine to be independent, as the specific genre like I had previously said isn't as popular as other music genres that are currently on the market already. So that means that when publishing my magazine I can not publish it for too much, as it hasn't got any recognition. I would then sale it in direct shops that have links to my magazine, like the dance and theatre companies. This means that when the money has to be split, to work out how much money has been made from the sales of my magazine. I would get more than I would have if it was a big publishing house.

Who would be the audience for your media product

The demographic for my target audience for my musical theatre magazine - Expression.
Is both male and female. I would consider the age range to be young adolescence through to young adults. This is because they would appreciate and understand the industry and the process that goes on within in it.
I haven't directed my magazine at any specific class, as I would want everybody to be entitled to read it however as it is a musical theatre magazine. The likely stereotypes that will be associated with this specific genre are that you are possibly higher class as you probably go to the theatre every week maybe or every other week. Also you may be part of an all rounded stage school that deals with all three singing, dancing and acting. Being part of a stage school and taking occasional trips will though work in your favour when reading this magazine as it does to some extent revolve around these things, but my magazine is written in a way that even if you don't participate in these activities you will still be able to understand the magazine and the different features inside of it.

How did you attract/address your audience?

They way in which I had gone about choosing my specific target audience were conducting my research. I had done a questionnaire and one the questions was what genre of music do you prefer. One of the groups that had got the least was musical theatre. This is because I feel that many people are not aware of this specific group, and I think that many people feel that in order to enjoy musical theatre you must attend the west end to watch shows every other week. This had made me feel that many adolescence where unaware, so I wanted to create a magazine that could prove them wrong and let them enjoy the this genre as well as the minority that already.
The way in which I had gone about drawing my target audience into my magazine, is by having a new artist who is up and coming with a different kind of swagger/image. I chose to make my artist a young teenage girl who isn’t posing in a particular way to stop a specific gender on wanting to read the magazine but I had allowed her to pose in a casual pose so that you can tell that it is so for both genders she is wearing clothing that are currently in trend as the readers may look at her want to be her. I didn’t want to make my magazine just for a specific genre so I used colours that wouldn’t suggest a particular age or gender. Expression is a Musical Theatre magazine for young adults; however I didn’t want it just to be for Musical Theatre lovers. I wanted everyone to be able to read it and understand the magazine. So it is broken down into sections. The main article would appear on the front cover and would usually have a gossip vibe to it. So that you would feel that it’s worth reading as you shall be getting information that no other magazine may have.

I needed to bring a creative and energetic vibe to my magazine. On my front page I have a typical bold all in one height font, but as it’s called “Expression” I used a font that had brushes imprinted into it so it had a different kind of liveliness to it. The colour of this was purple as it would stand out and contrast against the main image.

I used puffs on front cover that wouldn’t only make people of the specific genre want to read, but also people from outside of it. Having puffs such as “Sexiest Show Guys and Girls” it would draw in both genders and create a sense of community as it’s an opinion matter you may be reading this magazine with your friends and start a debate on who is actually the sexiest.

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

The things that I have learnt about the technology process of programmes like Photo shop and Fireworks, is that they can be used to easily manipulate an image in a certain way that would look much more appealing than what it would have originally compared to the raw image that it previously was. Photo shop consists of many filters that give certain effects that are used on many magazines. A filter that is used majority of the time is Surface Blur, this works as an air brushing effect. This effect is used on many magazines to edit models, celebrities etc. This then makes the image of the person look flawless, this portrays an image to the audience which then makes them aspire to be just like them.

There are varieties of filters that you would be able to use in various magazines. The surface blur effect can be reversed; you can blur the background for example to make the image the focal point. By hardening the brush you then make the blur extra hard so that there is an automatic focal point of an image. Another technique for photo shop that I have used was colour replacement. It’s when you chose a colour from the image from the palette to change the colour of a different object that may be in the image. This is what music editors may use to brighten and image, or manipulate it in a way to give a certain effect.

Another way, in which photo shop allows you to manipulate an image, is by cropping and giving the previous background a transparent background. I had done this for the image bellow, with the model in jump pose. I had cut all the way around the model, but where the models hair was very curly I had cut a section of her pony tail off, and placed it in a new layer to make it look as if it was in a bun, I had also done this to make her hair look a lot neater as she is suppose to be a dancer and they are usually very presentable. After I had done this, I grouped the picture and put it on a gradient background. This then formed a whole new image. I straightened up the dancers pose, from the raw image as at first she was at a lean. The way in which I had rotated the dancer/model on photo shop is by using the straighten tool, and drawing the line in the direction that I had wanted it to go on.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Whilst looking at the preliminary task, I had felt that I had learnt a lot in terms of the convention of a music magazine. The main magazine that I had looked at throughout the whole project was Q magazine. I had chosen this one as this is one of Britain's leading magazines.
The colours that they had used throughout the whole of the magazine reflects their specific target audience, the colours are neutral to both genders, red black and white. However at times they could be considered bias towards the male sex. This was because they had advertised certain manly things such as cars, also another more specific example is that they had advertised Braun, “Shave free weekend. Pain free Monday” with an insert of their quote. New razor for men, designed to “make a difference”. This wouldn't appeal to woman, but on the other hand it could as a gift as it was published during the Christmas period.
Music magazines on the market all vary from genre to genre; they have specific colours for specific groups of people. For example Smash Hits, this magazine was directed to young females. As they have images on the front cover of males that they would consider "hot" from famous and popular movies. The colours and fonts that they use are all very girly and bubbly. They would use colours that are pastel colours with a black outline around fonts as this would make them more eyes catching and bold and contrast against the rest of the page.
An example that I had picked up on whilst analysing music magazines are that the younger the target audience/reader the more packed and cramped the front cover and articles would be, they would have teen pop stars that the younger generation would appeal and or thrive to be like. However when it comes to dealing with magazines for older generation the pages and layout becomes much more sophisticated. The colours that are used become minimal, and the images and photos become a lot more professional.
Photo shoots would be different from genre to genre, and depending on the age group. An urban magazine photo shoot could consider of a specific image and look that an audience is used to seeing as a background or part of the set, as a new up and coming artist could have a photo shoot at south bank in the tunnel with the graffiti background. Where as a jazz magazine style would have a specific lighting and image edit, the texture of the image would be edited in a dull types of colours and wouldn't be as bright and high impact as a musical theatre magazines images would have.
The article in magazines contain different aspects, as young music magazines have interviews with celebrities and the latest craze "teen hotties" as at the moment of the release of New Moon - Twilight Saga, on every front cover there are the stars of the film Taylor Lautener and Robert Pattinson, even though they do not relate to music they know that by putting specific kinds of people on covers of magazines they will automatically draw in the readers. Whereas on more sophisticated magazines for the older generation they may have paid commiserations towards the King of Pop Michael Jackson, as he was respected by all genres of music as he was to have influenced them all in some kind of way.