2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of conventions of media products For my music magazine “Tempo” I have tried to use different conventions which I have seen in the music magazine industry. I based my research on the different types of conventional and also unconventional ideas and used some of them for my own music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread. I used a similar style to Q magazine and NME. I used the same kind off colour scheme and type of font. I think that Q Magazine had a large influence on my own music magazine as they focus mainly rock and Indie genres off music. Which is what my artist that features on my cover is into. By researching existing music magazines I noticed a few things that some had in common. For an example I noticed that the colour schemes that are used in many music magazines consist of the colours red, white and black. These magazines are normally either rock/ indie magazines or Hip hop/ R’N’B magazines. As my front cover features a “rock” artist I liked the conventional colour scheme so I used it in my own magazine as I thought is would look quite affective. On my front page I have used a large font which is my magazines logo, it reaches out across the top left hand corner, this is extremely conventional for a music magazine, I have also used one large image which is of artist “Simply Shane”. Q magazine usually uses only one main image on the front of there covers, I thin that this allows the audience to really focus on the main story line, so I thought that I could use this idea on my own magazine front cover. NME NME music magazine Q music magazine Q

3. I looked at number of music magazine covers to help gain influence by their particular designs. As a result I have decided to hybrids two popular magazines to create my own. I decided to look at Q magazine. This magazine appears to have sophistication about it, having usually one main image that it situated in the centre as a medium shot. The font used on Q magazine appears to be quite formal and the colour scheme for Q magazine seems to be darks greys, red and black. So I decided to apply this to my own. The other magazine that I looked into was NME. I liked the youthful side to the magazine such as the fun, coloured fonts. NME usually uses a bright neon colour for headlines or badges to allow them to stand out against the dark colours form the background. I really like the idea of having a formal magazine but with bright colours so that it is eye catching. As a result I decided to use the formal layout that Q magazine uses and add in bright fonts and a badge in order to give it the NME youthful kick to allow my magazine to appeal to my target audience of a younger age of 15 to 20 years old. Evaluating my Front Page.

4. By looking at a number of music magazines contents pages I was able to gain influence and inspiration for me to design Tempos Contents page. As I decided to go along the influence of two particular magazines, NME and Q magazine I decided to research the forums and conventions they have and then collide them both together to create my own. I felt that I swayed towards Q magazines styled Contents page a lot more as I felt that the simplicity of the page looks straightforward and to the point. There were different text boxes with specific information in each, giving the reader a clear understanding of the order of the magazine. I felt that this was uncomplicated way for my target audience to get easy access to the sections they want to read. I decided to use a patterned background for my contents page as I felt the influence from NME, as it is a quirky Magazine I thought I would do something a little bit different. I also added a bright neon yellow and red color to some of the text, making sections stand out and appear more eye- catching. I chose to add a reference to facebook and MySpace, two social networking sites. I wanted to add this as I feel as though in today’s youth, social networking has been a big adaptation of life. We use the site as a way of communication, so I felt that by reaching out to the generation (my target audience) my magazine we be able to be have an easy route for my audience to connect with Tempo. I also added in a website for Tempo, this is what every magazine today includes as being online is a very easy way to either subscribe to the magazine or just to find out up coming events or cover stories. Evaluating My Contents page.

5. How does your Media product represent particular social groups By looking at the results from my questionnaire, colour schemes and the artist/model featuring in the magazine is very important in attracting the audience. The response to my questionnaire influenced me to only use one model to feature on my music magazine. I thought that if I had a group of musician the audience would be distracted by the choice of different members, so by only using one, the focus would entirely be on that artist. I also used the main colour of red and black because they both represents many different emotions (passion, love, hate and danger, death,power) and I believe that the audience could relate to this and would therefore be drawn into purchasing the magazine as the colours also go really well together the initial look will be attractive From my questionnaire results I found out that that majority of people who buy a music magazine that I asked were in the age group of ages 15 to 20. so I decided to make my magazine a little bit more formal and mature as my music magazine was going to be aimed at teenagers and young adults. To still appeal to the youth in my audience I'm using quite playful fonts and background (the smoke) but I will photograph my artist in a more serious pose as I think this will help my audience be more attractive to it as they may feel mature purchasing a more “grown up” magazine. The contents page is probably the second most important page in the magazine when attracting the audience because generally it is the second page that the reader will see when they pick the magazine up first before potentially buying it. As i feel that the contents page is very important I decided to kind off keep with the colour scheme of red black and white but I added a few new colours in such as brown and greys. I thought that this might excite the reader as they will see something a little bit different from the front cover and make them wonder how the rest of the magazine will look.

6. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? As my magazine “Tempo” is a music magazine I would like it to be distributed in a traditional way by being sold at newsagent, supermarkets and music stores such as HMV. Another option for the distribution of my magazine could be the use of the internet, which is increasingly being used by the audience. Websites will not just advertise the magazines but also the technology will allow the reader to purchase and then read the magazine online, or for them to be sent to a home address. As I think that my music magazine “Tempo” should be a mainstream magazine I would use the publishing industry called Bauer. It is a major publishing industry that owns magazine brands such as Q and kerrang! I would use Bauer as I think that they have large audience and they can reach out to them in so many ways. They have websites, radio stations, music channels and the magazines itself. Bauer

7. Who would be the audience for your media product? Looking at the graphs of the questionnaires my target audience will be between the ages of 15 and 20 and would generally be female and interested in Indie/ Rock music as well as R’N’B/ Hip hop music. These genres off music are really popular in today’s society especially in that age group so I was happy to base my own artist on one of the favourite types of music selected from my questionnaire results. This age group has been targeted by the image used on the front cover of an artist similar to that age group, I thought that by doing this the audience can relate to them and be inspired by them. I think that the magazine would attract more female readers as the model used on the cover is a younger, good looking model, and females tend to look for an attractive model on the cover. I think that my magazine “Tempo” will also attract a lot of male attention as well as the feature contains a “Rock star” type of artist and the colourings of the magazine are slightly more masculine (reds, black, white and yellow). I would say that tempo would attract audiences who are skilled working class (C2) or who are lower middle class (C1). This is the typical classes that are attracted to the normal “glossy music magazines”. I would say that Tempo is like an ordinary music magazine as my artist is wearing smarter than casual clothing such as a designer t-shirt and accessories, and on the contents and double page spread he wears an open shirt with a tie undone.

8. Name : Tempo I decided to call my music magazine ‘Tempo’ as I liked the name due to the indication of the pace of music. As my magazine cover’s most genres of music old and new I felt the name tempo. Genre I wanted to cover a broad genre of music in my magazine but favourite Rock music in particular as it was the most popular chose through my questionnaire. As a result my model would be a Rock musician dressed in typical fashion of a ‘Rock star’, such as skull and cross jewellery. I would also add captions or headlines about another artist who specializes in a completely different style. To show the comparison of music. Dates and price: From my results I have decided to make my magazine a weekly at the price of £2:50 and can be subscribed thorough the magazines internet. Audience My target audience would primarily be aimed at the ages 15 to 20 year olds and would lean more towards females as a result form the questionnaire., I decided to add current a relevant topics in today’s younger generation, such as festival incites and vintage musical stars. Attraction From my questionnaire I asked what attracts the buyer. The colour scheme was the most popular choice. I decided to look at the usual colourings for music magazines and the most recurring colours appeared to be Black and red. I decided to add theses colours for my main colour scheme. The second most popular result was that the model on the cover is what attracts a buyer. As my main target audience is directed at young females I decided to feature a young male model (Shane Green) to attract my target audience through the opposite sex. Tempo Profile

9. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? When I first started to begin producing this music magazine I knew very little if anything about the program Adobe Photoshop and the amount freedom it gives to the user, while completing the preliminary task, I began to use tools such as the red eye removal tool which I have used in all of the images as well as the “dodge and burn” tool, that allows to smooth skin tone and complexion. I have also learnt to use the “magnetic lasso” tool and the magic background eraser in order to crop my images to ensure that the original back ground was completely changed. Throughout this project I have also learnt more about digital cameras and the importance of mega pixels and the importance of light, angle and timing in taking a picture and then transferring that picture to the computer and then using it in the magazine. I learned that I have to get the image the exact same size other wise it would turn out looking to pixalated (blurred). Here is a print screen from Photoshop. On the left is a print from my school magazine. The picture is clearly more pixelated and un clear were as in comparison the image on the right has look far more edited. The background has been manipulated, the fonts changed colours and the models skin looks much clear with less flaws.

10. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Looking at my preliminary task it’s easy to see that I have learnt a lot from completing the first task in comparison to completing my final product. My school magazine has really simple editing and doesn’t look very adventurous were as my music magazine looks more creative. For an example, for my front cover I was able to edit into the background smoke I found from the internet and then changed the colourings to the right colour that I wanted. My model also looks a lot clearer and “air brushed”. I think this was because I was able to play around a lot more with my music magazine product and experiment a lot more with Adobe Photoshop. I feel like my preliminary task helped to prepare me a great deal for my music magazine. At first I literally had no idea how to work the Photoshop program but by using the Basics in the preliminary task I was able to go a step further and do something a little more creative with the music magazines I had mastered the basic and was ready to try something different. I also think that I have learnt that the use of “Word art” which I used in my preliminary task looks a little bit “tacky” so I have tried to modernise the fonts by using a more professional style in my final piece by using websites such as www.dafont.com to create a font that suits with my magazine.www.dafont.com Other students gave me feedback and ideas from my questionnaire. They generally liked the name and the font used. Nearly all said they liked the images and particularly the use of smoke effect from Photoshop