Name of Music magazine: teenhits
The media product follows the conventions of a real music magazine but it also challenges the conventions. The masthead is similar to real music magazine and it is behind the image because the masthead is well known like ‘Top of the Pops’ so it won’t make a difference if you covered it slightly. The colour used in the magazine title is red, which is a primary colour, which suggests the magazine is for a younger audience, as the colours are simpler and easy to see. The masthead style is Arial, which is a very simple and straight which suggests the magazine is made for a sweet, innocent young teenage audience that don’t show any attitude or rebellion. ‘teenhits’ is also in lower case letters because the magazine doesn’t need to worry about grammar as it connotes informality to youthful readership. The masthead anchors the image because the masthead is sweet and innocent like the image of Katy is also innocent.
The magazine 'teenhits' is emulating is 'top of the pops', which has a target audience of 10-14 year olds because the magazine uses a lot of primary colours like pink, yellow and white. This is because primary colours attract younger audiences. The images used are of young music artist who sing pop songs, this type of music usually attracts a younger audience. The artists also look very friendly and not rebellious which is how young people like to see celebrities. 'teenhits' also uses the styles of 'top of the pops' by incorporating images of friendly pop artist and using a primary colour scheme which attracts the audience. 'top of the pops' uses a shiny, sparkly background lie used in 'teenhits which also uses a sparkly background made by a disco ball to get the idea that the stars are at a disco.
The image of Katy on the front cover is a medium close-up shot so that the audience would feel like they are involved as you would normally see a person in front of you as a medium close-up or medium shot. There are many small images of young artist below the age of 25 anchoring each strapline.
All the images relate because they are all about young people. The mise-en-scene used in the magazine does not follow the house style because the costume used uses dark colours also the background is very dark. The magazine subverts the conventions of house style in that the costume chosen is very dark and young people are meant to wear bright and pretty clothes. I have used dark colours because they contrast with the bright typography; also the darkness draws upon connotations of nightlife, discos and parties instead of the normal connotations of black as rebellion.
The straplines all follow the alignment convention in magazines. Also there are many contrasts of bold and capital letters to normal lower case letters on the straplines for example ‘Hot! Posters of Zac Efron.’ There is a lot of alliteration used throughout this magazine product to make the music magazine more interesting and snappy for the reader e.g. ‘Live Life Like Lou’ which is the title of the double page spread about the artist’s life. There are also simple rhymes or song lyrics used like ‘Something Kinda ooh! Cheryl in her tutu.’ This uses intertextuality because the song lyrics are used and also elitist because this only interests Girls Aloud readers. In the real media product they include alliteration for example in the magazine ‘NME’ the main article is called ‘Crystal Castles.’ The kicker ‘Katy reviews the charts pg 14-15’ is right in the middle of the front cover at an angle which makes the front cover look informal. The typography style for the kicker is ‘Arial Rounded MT Bold’, the size is 36, and the colour is yellow like the skyline and the effect used in a shadow effect. This made the kicker stand and out, the shadow is like an outline of the typography, which is used in ‘Top of the Pops’ typography. The magazine that ‘teenhits’ was influenced by; ‘Top of the Pops’ also has the kicker in the middle of the front cover at an angle. My magazine has 8 layers on the front cover, which is similar to the number of layers you find in a real media product for example the magazine ‘Blender’ has 8 layers and the image is layered onto the masthead and the skyline is layered on top of the masthead. The front cover also includes the main features that all magazines have like the barcode, the pug, the date, issue number and price.
The skyline on the front cover is red but I have used the transparent tool to make the background disco light background come through. I really like the different colours of red shining through. The typography style for the skyline is Arial Rounded MT Bold, the ‘win’ in the skyline uses the colour yellow and I used the shadow tool to make the ‘Win’ catch the audience’s eye in the skyline. The size of the word win is size 28. The rest of the typography colour is white and the size is 22 this makes the word win attract attention. I used the colour yellow in the skyline for the win because it stands out and the colour yellow is a primary colour so it attracts the younger teenage audience.
In the contents page I have used a medium shot of Katy so that the audience will feel involved enough to read the magazine, Katy is looking up like she is in deep thought. The audience wants to know her views on the charts and they want to know what is going on in her head. I have also used a long shot of the artist Louise because the audience have a clear view of what Louise is doing and what the environment around. The audience want to know how they can live like Louise because she looks happy and she loves shopping and having fun. The image reflects the aspiration of the readers because most girls go out shopping, to the cinema or hang out with their friends. Louise is out shopping and she is smiling and having fun like any normal young teenager would be doing.
On the double page spread there are many images of the artist Louise, which are in many types of shots including a close-up shot to see the expressions on Louise’s face clearly, long shot of Louise looking at a purple top and another long shot that in on the contents page of Louise posing in front of three full length mirrors in a fitting room of a clothes shop. This shot you can many different angles of the image from the mirror. There is also a medium shot of Louise choosing an outfit. All show the audience what Louise get up to in her spare time and show the target audience how much fun she is having. The images are anchored by the title of the double page spread ‘Live Life Like Lou’ and the copy because the copy tells the reader what Louise’s life is like as shown in the images so the audience can relate to Louise because they can go out and enjoy life like Louise. I have used a range of different shots of the two different artists Katy and Louise. A magazine I researched, ‘Top of the Pops’ has many different shots for the different artists in the magazine for example the double page spread image of Miley Cyrus is a long shot of Miley lying on a lip sofa because this image goes with the title of the double page spread ‘Miley mouths off.’ This anchors the image because the lip is part of the mouth.
My media product represents teenagers who are fond of a good time but not in not a rebellious way. This is reflected in the type of music in ‘teenhits’, which is popular music from the charts (pop). The lighting used in the magazine images is high key lighting; the light is mainly focussed on Katy’s face to show that she is the main focus of the magazine. The lighting is also on Katy’s arm leading to the iPod in her hand to show Katy has a passion for music. The magazine is inviting the audience to listen to her music or the music in the music in the magazine. Also music is the main focus of the magazine and I purposely chose this type of lighting. The magazine front cover shows Katy with a medium shot which makes the audience feel involved because you normally see a person from the waist up when you are interacting with them. Katy looks very friendly and innocent because she is smiling and showing no aggression or rebellion this suggests Katy isn't threatening to the audience. The shot angle is face on and not a high angle to show she is more superior to the audience or a low angle to show the audience is more superior to the artist. The angle is at the same level as the camera to show she is friendly like she is a friend as well as an artist and she is a good role model that young teenagers can look up to. Katy looks innocent and not rebellious because she is smiling sweetly. I have used their first names because this is more personal to the audience and they can relate to the artist. Also you call your friends by their first name so the audience can think of the artists as their friend. In the copy of the double page spread,the language used is informal and the artists Louise tells the reader what she gets up to in her spare time. She mentioned she loves going shopping especially at the Clothes Show and she loves hanging out with her friends at the cinema. This suggests teenagers to be good people who don’t hang around on the streets and get into trouble because she mostly enjoys to keep busy and go shopping and have fun like any young teenager that can look up to her as a role model.
The colours used in the magazine are mostly primary colours because it is aimed at a younger audience. Katy’s outfit and the background colour are very dark which normally means danger, rebellion, death and scary but here it is used in another context. Katy’s black top connotes nightlife, discos and parties. The shiny, sparkly background looks like a disco ball, which is similar to the costume so the dark colours give a fun and calmer atmosphere. The mise-en scene for the magazine is the detail on the dark sequin dress; the sequins are arranged in a flower shape, which represent the sweetness, and innocence, which is how teenagers are portrayed in this magazine. The i pod in Katy’s hand represents the music and the kicker underneath the image says ‘Katy reviews the charts’. This heads the main and because Katy is listening to the chart music that she is going to review. The audience could also listen to the chart music that is mentioned in the magazine. The i pod is white, the colour white connotes purity so the music mentioned in the magazine or on Katy’s i pod is pure, innocent, safe and good to listen to. Katy is wearing very natural, clean makeup that isn’t too over the top with huge blocks of bright colours or exaggerated to seek attention or too dark or rebellious.
The media institution that might distribute my magazine is the BBC which is an enormous magazine institution because the magazine is for a mainstream audience. An example of a mainstream institution is the BBC, which also produces ‘Top of the Pops’. The magazine is not for a specific audience it is mainly for young teenagers or any teenager that like the main style of music for this magazine. The genre of music is popular music in the charts or pop music. Pop music is popular music that most people listen to or a large percentage listens to so the magazine has a larger, mainstream audience.
The target audience for this magazine is young teenagers aged 11-15 because there are primary colours used in the front cover of the magazine. This age group is most likely to like pop music and read this magazine. I don’t think this magazine would be suited for boys as the main target audience because there is only information or gossip in this magazine that girls would be interested in. The main storylines are also about female artists so girls can relate to these female artists; the artists Katy and Louise are young artist from the age of 17 to 18 so girls could easily relate to these artists because there are of a similar age. The examples of the main storyline in the double page spread are having a boyfriend, going out like shopping, going to the cinema and celebrating her birthday.
The magazine addresses the audience by using informal language and the image of Katy looks kind, smiley, gentle and friendly which would suit young teenagers. The language used is also fairly straight forward and easy to understand and grammar doesn’t appear to be important because the title of the magazine, teenhits is in lower case letters. There are a few slang words or words that only the target audience would be able to understand for example ‘ooer’, the magazine has a friendly relationship with the reader. This makes the target audience feel special because only they would know the real meaning of the word so it is like a secret code.
I have learnt about many technologies in this process of construction for this product.
I have learnt how layer images onto text and how to layer the background of the image under the text and the main image above the text. Also I have learnt how to use a camera and how to set up the camera or shot to get the best quality for example taking a photo at an angle, using different varieties of lighting to suit the genre of the magazine. Also how to use different options on the camera like macro fro close-ups. I have learnt what effects work best with different images for the specific genre. I learnt about what colours or styles work well together. Also I learnt ho to layer on publisher, I layered some texts on top of images especially in the double page spread and front cover.
Overall this magazine was much better than my preliminary task, I have learnt how to take a photo and set up the photo before taking the picture. Also I have learnt to decide on suitable lighting. I decided to include some shots in the studio like on the from cover and contents page but have different background location like taking photos in a shop, which was used on the double page spread. Before I took the photo I thought about the mise-en-scene that would create the image and the outfit my models were going to wear. I also had to think about the colours used and the meaning behind them. I also thought about the expression on the artist’s face to give a certain mood. I also thought carefully about the background and the colours that suited each other and complimented each other.
A girl aged 14 read my magazine and really liked the style. She said 'I love this magazine, Louise and Katy look really friendly. Also I can relate to Louise because I work hard at school and sometimes I need a break and I like getting out the house. I enjoy similar activities like shopping and going to the cinema with my friends. The artists are very pretty and they are a good role models in my life.'
