My media product uses lots of conventions from real magazine covers such as a Banner which used the name of the magazine 'BLOOM' on the front cover and on the contents page. I also included the barcode, date and issue number. I thought this was important as nearly every magazine created has these three features included and as I want my magazine to look like a high-end magazine, I had to use these.
On my contents page I used alot of Picture Boosts which promoted my stories for inside the actual magazine. This included a picture of my partner Jess holding a pile of books which endorsed the upcoming story of the topic 'revision'. I repeated this using a photo of myself holding a driving certificate standing outside a car which gave the impression I had just passed my driving test and this promoted the story and question 'are driving lessons too expensive?'. This feature was also used again in another picture of myself again, outside a vending machine which supported the story about vending machines not being trust worthy enough as they are known for not giving people the right change or 'eating' their money and not letting out the item you have paid for.
I also used Cropping as a feature on the front cover, cropping just a small segment of the bottom of the photo off making it a better mid-length shot as that's all I needed for my front cover photo. Mostly all of top high-end magazines would use this feature throughout their media product.
Also included on my front cover was Left Justify and Right Justify as I thought these would make my cover look more high-end. All the cover lines on the left would use the Left Justify and all cover lines on the right used the Right Justify, these finishing touches made my magazine come together and start to look like a real one.
The masthead is included on both front page and contents page, making the word 'BLOOM' big enough to fill the whole space which makes the word stand out, the colour black which was used for the masthead also makes it stand out more than the colour white would.
Question Two: Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for my magazine is obviously sixth form students from ages 16-18 but it could also be aimed at maybe year 11's looking to come to sixth formers, getting ready to experience life as a college student and it could also be for 19-20 year olds who could be living the college life if they are re-taking AS/A Level subjects or have started later, maybe they are young adult students. In terms of Pyscographics, the students who would be reading this magazine would be achievers as they're at college for a reason which is to get good qualifications which will lead them onto greater things to come in life. I'd put their social values as Hedonists aswell as being students they most care about having fun yet they also want to work hard, they make time for both and try and succeed in everything they possibly can. In terms of Demographic, this magazine is marketed at the typical students who most likely own a mobile phone and an ipod, they hate buses and coursework yet they still complete the coursework and ride buses everyday because they are determined to create a future for themselves. They probably own a pair of vans or converses and also they live for the weekend. Those of just some of the features in my magazines demographic profile.
Question Three: How did you attract/address your audience?
I used light, natural, fresh looking colours on the front page of my magazine which connote mostly new life which can relate to a new college year and a new beginning in a different environment. It can appeal to the fact everyone's meeting new people and starting new subjects and overall starting a new chapter of their life. They've all finished another year of school work and now they're ready to move on and start learning new and exciting things in their new chosen subjects. I think this appeals to my both gender, mainstream audience as the cover lines are neither too aimed at female or too aimed at male and the 20% off Nandos voucher would be something both genders would be extremely interested in. The picture of my partner Jess on the front cover doesn't connote that the magazine is just for females either, she's wearing mutual colours of black and white which aren't gender predicted colours such as blues and pinks would be and she's not looking directly front on to draw you in, she's looking slightly to the right which could suggest looking into her future and it shows that as a college magazine, the future is where you want to be heading. This could also connote one of the cover lines 'check out which crazy jobs you could be doing with your a levels' as that's far ahead into the future of your life and all college students are having to think about their life decisions they're going to have to make.
I've used the title 'BLOOM' in capital letters and in a black filled font. This makes it stand out and easy to read which hopefully on a magazine stand would be one title that would draw its attention to you.
On the contents page, the picture of myself holding a piece of paper standing outside of the car looking happy can connote that passing your driving test could actually be a good thing, it's better to learn now than later; but as petrol prices go up, the big question is whether it's actually worth learning to drive, especially as paying for driving lessons, theory tests and your actual driving exam can end up costing alot of money. This is the question which is based at the top left corner of the photo in white writing which is using Wob - white text on a coloured background.
The picture of my partner Jess, also on the contents page carrying books can connote that judging by her facial expressions, alot of worry and stress is upon her as all the work and coursework that college can demand is alot and students need to be organised with their studies.
Question Four: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The technologies I used during the process of creating my media product were alot of help and it would have been so much harder to create the magazine cover and contents page without them. I used a digital SLR camera to produce masterpiece photographs using the portrait setting which allows you to focus on a main point and the rest of the background can be blurred; this made my photograph of Jess look really professional and all the attention of my magazine cover was focused on her and not the surroundings.
Photoshop was a huge help and this helped me create the perfect magazine covers using the many layers it provided. It had everything I needed on there such as the crop tool, the magic wand tool, the spot healing brush and the lasso tool. All of these features helped me create the perfect, classy and sophisticated looking cover.
I used InDesign to help me create the contents page and that allowed me to make mine look like the top high-end magazines would. Me and my partner Jess looked at the Vogue contents and took most of our idea's from there, using the many boxes and different sized fonts to produce the flawless looking page.
We also used the internet to get some images of CD covers (the Ed Sheeran and Adele ones) to make up some negative space we had on our contents page and that helped fill up the page making it look like it should have been in a real magazine. We got all our idea's from mainstream magazines that are produced today.
It was definitely easier to create the professional look using all these technologies, without them it would have been a harder job so i'm glad that these functions are here to help us create our media products.
This is the Photoshop toolbar.
A photo of the camera we used to perfect our images.
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