Question 1 - In which way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product?

Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 2 from EmmaCrystall

Question 3 - What media institution might distribute your media product?

This is the script for the audio file found above:

A media institution is an establishment, which is in charge of marketing, distributing and producing different media products. When deciding which media institution would distribute my magazine, it was important for me to consider the genre and the social group associated with my magazine. I also found it important to look at whether they were an independent publisher or a conglomerate institution. Also I had to consider if there was a gap in the market for my media product and whether the institution has the correct skills needed to distribute ‘Overload’ which is in the genre of dance and festival music.

Firstly I analysed what institutions distributed my competitors. Mixmag (one of my main competitors) is published by an independent publishing company, Development Hell LTD. It was set up by David Joseph, David Hepworth and Jerry Perkins. They have more than 35 years combined experience devising, publishing and editing titles such as Empire, Heat and Q. Development Hell LTD also distributes another magazine called ‘The Word’ who’s target audience is of the older generation and features reviews, interviews and photos.

My next big competitor is DJ Mag. DJ Mag is an English magazine that is produced monthly and features mainly electronic dance music. It is edited by Ben Murphy and distributed by Thrust Publishing. Before that it was distributed itself under ‘DJ Mag publishing’ while the magazine was bringing in a small profit and not well known.

After looking and analysing my competitors, I decided that neither of these publishing institutions would offer me the required skills needed, as I want my media institution to not only sell 1 or 2 magazines, but a wide variety of different types. Therefore, I decided then that I wanted ‘Overload’ to be distributed by a conglomerate institution rather than an independent publisher so that it could reach more people and grow quicker.

I decided that I wanted to distribute my magazine through a publishing house like Bauer Media. Bauer Media is one of Europe’s most successful media companies offering over 300 magazines; such as, FHM and Kerrang. My unique selling point would be the fact that Bauer Media does not sell a music magazine aimed at my specific genre of dance and festival music and therefore it would stand out but also fit in nicely. Due to Bauer Media’s experience, they sell millions of brands drawing in a total of 1.9 billion pounds.

Bauer Media have a global presence spanning over 16 countries in 4 continents; this would allow me and my magazine to tap into new markets. Due to this experience, they would be aware what magazine sells where and therefore, compared to smaller institutions, they could distribute my magazine to many different countries and continents creating a lager profit and allowing my magazine to grow on a global scale. Bauer Media anticipates consumer trends and work with technological developers to ensure their content is available by whomever, whenever and however. This would be an amazing advantage for my magazine as I could print it and then even possibly create an online app for Overload. This is an extremely effective way of delivering my content especially as my demographic is young and more into technology than going out and buying a hard copy of a magazine.

To conclude, I would have Bauer Media distribute my media product as they have the successful experience to offer me and my magazine and they have a large scale of work integrated in the company.

Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

Question 6 - What have you learnt from technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the pregression from it to full product?

Final Double Page Spread

Final Contents Page

Final Front Cover

Double Page Spread Development

• Firstly, I divided the page, added my logo and the masthead
• Then I added my feature article photograph, cutting it out using the magnetic lasso tool and the rubber tool
• Then I added an image to the top right hand corner of the page
• Then I added a stand first
• Next I started filling in the left hand side of the right page with questions and answers using the text tool
• I then filled in the left hand side
• After that I had some negative space at the bottom of the page, therefore I added social media links
• Then I added a page number, website address and date to the bottom of the page
• Next, I added pull quotes around my feature article photograph using the text tool and the rectangle tool
• Lastly, I had some negative space therefore I added stars to fill it in and make the pages look more connected  

Contents Page Development

• Firstly, I changed the colour of my background and then I added the masthead.
• I then added a logo to the top left hand side of the page
• Then I proceeded to add in my images. I cut them out by using the magnetic lasso tool and the rubber tool.
• I then added page numbers over the top of my images to make it easy for a reader to navigate through my magazine
• Then I used the line tool to border my images to separate them more
• I also put a border around my logo to separate it from the page
• Then I started to add in my text using the text tool
• After adding all of my text I added a date, issue number and web address to the top of the page and underneath the images
• It came to my attention that the page numbering was not accurate to a real magazine and therefore I went back and increased the numbers so that it was implied that my magazine would go up to 200 pages
• I then moved my image up from the bottom and bordered it to make it look more connected, I also used the fill tool to add a white background to make the subjects stand out more
• Lastly, I had a bit of negative space at the bottom of the page, therefore I added a rectangle with information about a free CD that you would get with my magazine to fill the space

Front Cover Development

• Firstly I created my masthead using the text tool and  coloured the background using the bucket tool.
• I then placed my feature article photograph, cutting it out with the magnetic lasso tool. 
• I then added a puff to make my magazine more appealing.
• Then I started to add in all my plugs down the left hand side of my front cover.
• Then I filled in the right hand side of my front cover with plugs.
• On the right hand side of my front cover I decided to add a plug that was in a circle to add more shape to the page. I did this by using the ellipse tool.
• Then I added a bar-code, website link, price and date to the bottom right hand corner of the page.
• I finished my front cover by adding a cover line which takes up the focus of the front cover. I did this by again using the text tool and using the rectangle tool to put behind it to make it stand out more but I lowered the opacity of the rectangle so that the writing was still clear and that the feature article photograph could still be seen underneath.

Photo Shoot - Double Page Spread

For my main photograph on my double page spread I decided to choose the photo on the left as I wanted my feature article artists to be making eye contact to engage the reader. I also chose the left picture because I though that it was a playful image and gave the impression that they don't take themselves too seriously; this would appeal to my audience.

I also decided to add a smaller picture to my double page spread to add to the aesthetic. I chose the image on the left because I thought that it fitted better with the overall image of my magazine.

Photo Shoot - Contents Page

 For my contents page I got a couple of different people to model for me. I decided to use the photo on the left as I felt that it gave off the right vibe for my magazine and it was framed better than the one on the right.

After experimenting with the lighting, I decided to shortlist these photos for my contents page as I thought that they would create a mysterious vibe and grab a readers interest. I chose the photo on the left for my contents as I thought that the photo on the right was better for my double page spread as I already have a photo of a duet on my contents pages.

For my cover artist photo I wanted it to have a slightly different attitude to what was on the front cover. I decided to choose the photo on the left as I thought it showed that they are confident and open indicating how their interview would sound.