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Q1: IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP

OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA

PRODUCTS.

MAGAZINE INFLUENCESWith the help of many different sources, I was able to research any regional

magazines around the country. It was harder than I thought, however with the help of a certain website called

http://issuu.com/search?q=regional+magazines. I was able to look at regional magazines which were potentially magazines I would be inspired by.

Through this website I was able to find a numerous of magazines which in my opinion

were influences and inspirations towards planning my first draft of my magazine. The

magazines which I was looking into were mostly not in Birmingham, however I came

across two magazines which had been regional lifestyle magazines for

Birmingham. In particular I really liked the “Scene” magazine because of the powerful pictures, colour choices and very bold font

which straight away caught the readers attention compared to the Style magazine.

However, the magazine which I got influence and inspiration from, was

from a magazine called “I-on Edinburgh”

MAGAZINE INFLUENCES: I-ON EDINBURGH MAGAZINE

This magazine in particular stood out to me the most out of all the ones I looked at on the ISSUU website. I really liked the pun of the “i-on” as well as the whole layout of the front cover and contents page. I like how every single magazine had a lot of similarities by using the

side of a very powerful looking woman. There was always a main cover line, surrounded by a few of extras inside of the magazine. This

magazine in my opinion however may of come across as a girly magazine due to the powerful features of the girls eyes, lips and

overall facial expressions.

Overall I liked the feeling that this magazine was giving off, it was not too busy or too plain making it very pleasurable to look at and read. The contents page I feel look very classy through the pictures they use and the layout of the page. There is an obvious link in with the

front cover and the contents page.

MAGAZINE INFLUENCES – DRAFTING AND PLANNING

I began to create something very similar to this magazine. I really liked the

thought of having eyes on my front cover as I knew that this would represent

“seeing” or “looking at” Birmingham without writing the word. Therefore by placing the eyes before Birmingham I

would hope that the readers would know the message behind the eyes. I liked the

idea of Birmingham being in very different “city scape” font to represent the city being the main subject in my

magazine.

http://kamilasawzdargoa2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/research-into-similar-products_20.html.

The link below takes you to a blog post I did back in November comparing the

similarities between the layout of each magazine issue. I really liked the layout of the contents page particularly as it included 3 different types of pictures

that refer to what is inside.

MAGAZINE INFLUENCES: TRUE DETECTIVE

However, from the feedback I was receiving that my magazine was looking like its aimed at girls, this is something I did not not want the male students to think as

it may put them off.

Therefore I began even more research into how I can make my magazine even better. Through the research of a film program called “True Detective” I was able

to gain inspirations and influence through the viewing one of the trailers.

Gaining this type of inspiration had caused me to change my whole magazine completely and making it appeal to both male and female students.

http://kamilasawzdargoa2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/research_6.

html.

The research into the True Detective program had inspired me to take all of the previous

pictures I have took of the city and put them together into a collage like this one shown. I

like the effect of there being strong male features shown with faded out images of

landscapes. This is something which I knew would work well, as I could choose to use a student as the model and fade in pictures of

the city into his face and body.

MAGAZINE INFLUENCES: TRUE DETECTIVE

The True Detective series influenced me to use the Photo Shop program to have a go at creating something very similar. I was able

to use the best photos I had taken previously and combine them together into the figure of my model which I had taken a picture of

before hand. I had to use a number of tools in order to join the pictures together to create a layered collage of the different places in Birmingham. This took a lot of time as I also had to make sure

that the models facial features were still visible because I felt that they would work well amongst the Birmingham sceneries. The

pictures below are there to show the comparison between the true detective collages and the process of making my collage. This was my influence and I straight away knew it would work very well with

the front cover of my “Student issue” magazine. This I am sure would represent the City as very dynamic, outgoing and busy.

BILLBOARD INFLUENCES

When it came to billboard influences I found it hard to search for billboards advertising regional magazines. However I came across busses which advertised regional magazines in Birmingham in a similar billboard layout. The “social animal?” and

“party animal” would perfectly describe somebody who would enjoy my magazine.

However I wanted to connect my billboard to my magazine front cover and use one of the photos which featured in the collage inside of my model on the front. I picked the panorama picture of the library and the city because I knew this would look incredible on the shape of the billboard. I wanted

to use a panoramic photograph and keep it simple due to the fact that there cannot be too much

writing on billboards and the picture is very powerful already.

ADVERT INFLUENCES

For my advert I wanted to advertise something which will attract the

students. Picking an American Diner in my opinion would be something

perfect as its fatty food. I researched into student offers and got influences

from restaurants like Frankie & Benny’s and the Tiger Bills which

offered 20% off for students. I decided to do something similar as it’s a

Student Magazine.The “Students receive 10% off” should be

something which also attract the student into reading the magazine to get the 10% off. The little types of information I gathered from research had influenced me to make some amendments to my

magazine for it to clearly refer to the students and make it more clearer that this is a student issue.

SOCIAL GROUPI have decided that my media product will be aimed and focused

at the student sector of the region. I believe that there is a huge mass of students who would happily get a free regional and lifestyle magazine which will hopefully guide them in a

sense of knowing what’s going on in Birmingham. I wanted to make something a little bit more different from the rest of the

regional magazines and this time have a specific target audience within the region. My media product is a Student

Issue of an already existing magazine.

I know that a lot of students will be able to relate to the topics of my magazine and hopefully be interested in what is has

inside. By choosing

HOW DID I ATTRACT THE AUDIENCE?It is vital to have something on the front cover in order to attract the right target

audience. The front cover, in my opinion, is very strong due to the fact its includes so many different places in Birmingham which are combined, faded

and layered into a students head/body. I feel that just by looking at it, it would attract the audience with the colours used and the layout of the magazine.

• The left third layout would make my magazine stand out massively alongside other magazines as

the masthead is along the left side of the page. The colour of my masthead makes the magazine a little more live from the rest of the cover stories on

the page.

• The images inside of Jae clearly represent buildings, roads, landscapes in Birmingham which

can be easily recognizable as I decided to use picture of the Library, Selfridges and Digbeth in

order to highlight the well known student areas of the city.

• By using the symbol “#” before Birmingham is what younger people would most likely use on

social media sites in order to find out more about the City. Therefore in this case I do feel that this

also attracts the audience as it demonstrates that the subject of this magazine is Birmingham.

• Having a young cover star relates back to the target audience and supports the idea that this

magazine is a student issue.

HOW I ATTRACT THE AUDIENCE? MASTHEAD

The way I wanted to attract the audience with my masthead is to include a part of the punctuation that most young people use, both of

social networks, TVs and in life. I thought that the “#” would be something that could work well as I know from my own experience, people love to hashtag a lot of things. The hashtag is also a symbol

which is used when someone wants to find out more about something, whether its pictures, posts or updates. Therefore I felt that this would be a perfect link to my magazine as its an article full of news, events

pictures and updates for Students to read about Birmingham.

Hashtags are on all of the social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook and many more. This could hopefully enable them to type the “#BirminghamMagazine” into social media sites and gather more information on my magazine. A hashtag on social media has the power to make a certain subject popular as its what people are reading

about. The hashtag is also part of the vocabulary in test messages which is a link to students as they are obsessed with their mobile

phones.

HOW DO I ATTRACT THE AUDIENCE? BILLBOARD

For my billboard, I have decided to keep it plain and simple as I know that too much information can be dangerous and make the billboard boring. By using one of my original photography of the Library I decided to use the panorama photo and use

this as a background of the whole magazine. By doing this it will make the billboard noticeable and easy to read. The social media links are useful as there is many students that can have rapid access to any social media sites which could lead

them to the link of my magazine.

This will especially attract the audience because of the colour choices I have picked and the quality of the photo. It is clearly about #Birmingham through the text and

the choice of a City Centre photograph. I made it clear that the topic is Birmingham by using the name of my magazine #Birmingham and the student issue would be

out now. “The Student Issue” also indicated that it is the magazine.

HOW DO I ATTRACT THE AUDIENCE? The radio advert for me was something which would have been difficult in order to aim the

advert at a specific target market. However, in my case I used two young students to advertise my magazine, and clearly stated in the advert that it was a limited edition of the student issue. This is hopefully a stepping stone towards an attraction of my aimed target market. The jingle which I have chosen is one that isn't annoying and in fact is

pleasurable to listen to. The beat is also a sign that it may be for the younger generation as older people prefer calmer music.

I have made the script short and simple, asking rhetorical questions at the start of the advert in order to involve a student listening to the radio. After the first 3 words,

“student” is mentioned which already affects a specific target audience. The chosen jungle/soundtrack was one I found appealing to a student magazine. Its upbeat, fun

and enjoyable to listen to. I also think that its not an annoying jingle like some advertisement songs could be.

https://youtu.be/DZIRwPSyoFc

The advert is clearly stating an advertisement for a magazine and its not hard to work out within the

first 2 seconds of the radio

HOW I ATTRACT MY AUDIENCE TO MY ADVERT?

The reason why I have chosen to advertise an American Diner in a Student regional magazine, is because I feel that students spend a lot of the time going out and eating out. I chose to have something which is easily attracted when the magazine is first

opened, using the American flags to attract attention to American Style food.

The address at the top is “Selly Oak” which I have also chosen on purpose due to the fact that this

place is full of students as it’s the area of University of Birmingham with halls of residence and flats. I

decided to add social media links at the bottom of the page because students are constantly on social

media which should make them realise that they have easy access to find out more about this Diner

on these social media sites.

By having “Students receive 10% off” is hopefully also something that grabs their attention. It’s a

discount which they are able to use through having a student card.

The “Opening Soon…” should be seen as giving the student time to have a look into the Diner through the option of social media sites etc. And the most popular social

sites are listed at the bottom as a reminder for the easy access of information,

Q2: HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT

AND ANCILLARY PRODUCTS?

#BIMRINGHAM MAGAZINE BRANDING

Throughout the magazine I do feel that there is a sense of branding and they are all connected to each other. The

colour scheme, fonts and photographs are linked and repeated throughout the magazine. The colour red is featured on

every single page as well as on the billboard. The pictures used in the front

cover collage are also very similar to the one used on the contents page and the billboard. They are powerful through the

use of camera angles. I also feel that there is an obvious sign that my magazine is a student issue. Its clearly shown through the articles, features, advertisement, news and pictures

throughout the magazine.

Q3: WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

When I designed my first magazine, it came across to me that there had been plenty of comments about the eyes making the magazine seem like its

appealing to females. in this case, the feedback helped me to improve on how to make my magazine a lot more successful and appealing to both genders.

The audience’s feedback from social networks like Twitter Facebook and Whatsapp gave me a range of opinions from different types of audiences

which had answered questions to improve the layout, positioning and the first impressions.

Audience feedback had encouraged me to change the complete setting of my magazine, from the start to finish, it had improved massively in everything.

This was crucial to me as it made me realise the things I did not see and helped me to improve.

I asked the social media on Facebook about the improvement I have made since my first draft. This type of feedback enabled

me to do something and improve on my magazine

FEEDBACK FROM MASTHEADAfter changing the masthead completely, I had to gain

feedback from any of the social media sites in order to see how this will work on my magazine.

Both of the feedbacks commented that they liked the idea of the “#” in front of Birmingham as it is commonly

used in any search bars to find out everything about Birmingham. It had been said that this had a huge link in

with the “student issue” as a lot of symbols and acronyms are used the young adults in their vocabulary making it far more easier to search anywhere online.

The feedback also mentioned the good idea of keeping the masthead simple with a simple font as the rest of the front cover is very busy which could make is clash. The

colour was also mentioned as successful due to the connection of the colour scheme through the whole

magazine it is bright, clear and easy to read which is important. The idea of the masthead being flipped on its

side give the magazine the sense of it being different from the rest. This is something good as it connects to

the idea of it being a limited student issue.

FEEDBACK FROM THE MAGAZINE AND BILLBOARD

I had a lot of people giving me positive feedback, however in this case I had a comment about the front cover being dull and grey looking. This I improved by

changing the brightness using the Photoshop program which had massively improved the grey colour and made it a lot more yellow/happy looking.

There has been positive feedback especially on the

layout of the magazine which has encouraged me to see that

there is a link between the 4 pages of my magazine. The

positive feedback on the fonts chosen, and colours used makes

me aware that there is no specific gender for this, which is

good as its aimed at both genders of students.

The choice of articles is also successful as it is easily

recognised as events and news are based on the things

students could do around Birmingham.

FEEDBACK FROM THE BILLBOARD

The feedback from my billboard has also been positive as its been mentioned that there is a flowing link between my ancillary

products. This is good as it is easily identified as the same subjects advertised. A link is important because it will make

everything more noticeable and remembered

The photograph I have chosen to use is also one that has

been referred to as the correct photo for a billboard. It is

powerful as it clearly shows the city of Birmingham which

could signify looking at/observing what is going on

around the city and this is exactly what my magazine is

for.

The Masthead is also powerful because of its simplicity and

the size of it, it is clearly noticeable which is important for something on a billboard.

Q4: HOW DID THE USE OF MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION

AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

TECHNOLOGIES USED DURING RESEARCH AND PLANNING

By using Blogger http://kamilasawzdargoa2.blogspot.co.uk/. It has made my research, drafting and

planning a lot more easier as I have began to see the difference in

improvement and track all of my progress. It had me far more organized and made my work accessible easier. I had the opportunity to embed a lot of

YouTube clips when I needed them for my radio advert during the search of the right sound for my radio advertisement as well as copy any pictures from Google search to post and write about in my blog posts.

Blogger allowed me to keep all of my progress in chronological order to

make sure I was able to see when I did a certain post. I was also able to save certain posts as drafts and later on go back to add any more information and

posting them. There are comment boxes available for anyone who views my blog to comment what they think of any certain post. This is good for

any sort of feedback.

Apart from Blogger, I also used websites like YouTube, Audacity and free sound which have guided me

throughout the production of both my ancillary and main product. YouTube was the website which helped me find the jingle for my radio advert, and audacity was the program used to make the scripted advert combine with the jingle. I was then able to edit it in

the way I knew it would work best, changed positions of the script, faded the music in and out and made

cuts to the sentences not needed in the script.

TECHNOLOGIES USED DURING RESEARCH AND PLANNING

Photoshop has been the main software I used in order to create the True Detective inspired front cover of my magazine. This program

enabled me to explore the different things that I can do with photos, I was able to layer photos on top of each other and change their

brightness and contrast. It also let me change the different layers so they work well with each. I was able to play around with all of the photo inside of my model and choose how much of Jae’s features I

want alongside the photos.

Without this software I know that I wouldn’t be able to create something that now is on my front cover. I also really liked how I

was always able to go back to the original, first attempt once I was done playing around with it and having a go at experimenting with

the tools such as colour blending, the gradient tool etc.http://

kamilasawzdargoa2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/planning.html

.

PROGRAMS I HAVE USED

I have been a huge fan of the programs like PagePlus and Paint.Net where I have had the opportunity to make amendments and edits to

improve my magazine.

PagePlus was a program I much preferred using as it enabled me to make my magazine look realistic giving me an exact size template of the pages. PagePlus was my favorite as it was easy to use with a

lot of tools and editing techniques which really helped me on my magazine masthead, fonts and effect on my advertisement page. When it came to my billboard, Pant.Net helped me with the text

and the layering of the font on top of the picture. It also allowed me to use layers to choose what part of the picture I

have been working on and pick what layer I would like to have in front and in the back. This helped me to compare various projects of my Billboard alongside seeing what worked best with the text sizing

and the colour.

PROGRESS FROM AS TO A2The progress is quite easy to see as the magazine in my AS

especially the contents page and front cover, look quite plain and simple. It was much more easier last time as I

was creating a Pop music magazine which was evidentially aimed at young girls. The colour scheme

was easy to choose, the model and articles also. I used programs like Paint.Net and PagePlus which were both quite new to me and therefore I could explore as much

as I wanted to.

In my A2 project I was able to have a look at exploring the programs further and also using Adobe Photo Shop

which had many editing possibilities for my chosen photos. I Felt that this project was more difficult as there

was no specific target audience to aim at, therefore doing a student issue is something which makes it different from the rest of the regional magazinesI think personally I have

improved massively in the editing and creating as I was able to do a lot with my photographs

this time, I was able to edit them by fading

them in and out as well as combining them

together to create an effective collage.