Audience Survey

I have asked a few people I know what their opinions on magazines are? What they think of a regional magazine? What their favourite type of magazine is? and if they don't buy magazines, why they don't buy the magazines?

 I have went and collected feedback on y front cover draft from people I know who are my age.The first sticky note reads "Good quality pictures, good face emotion, Like how the back ground is blurred" mainly all positive feed back the second sticky note read "Spelling mistakes, focus doesn't stand out, like the natural pose of the model and can tell it is aimed at the youth". This tells me I need to go back to check the spelling and try and make focus stand out more maybe i can change the size or the colour.

The first sticky note says "Good mix of photos like the colour of the headlines as they match color in photos" mainly positive and this tells me what I am doing correctly. "colours matching as looks odd" I am not quite sure as to what the reviewer is saying as some one else said the colours went well but this person is saying they don't match? the final note says "good range of pictures, good amount of info and good quality pictures" By having my contents page reviewed it has helped me see what other people think of it and has helped me see if and where i need to improve"

The double page spread notes read "spelling/punctuation" I am guessing this means I need to check my spelling and punctuation how ever it is a bit vague, "more pics and captive title" I can see that this person ants more pictures on the page and by doing so I may need to re do the layout a bit. The other note says "Maybe a mix of smaller paragraphs and start do new page should have a new capital. Not sure what is happening in the first photo? like the colours" I am not sure if I was able to explain clearly to the people taking notes that the pictures used are screen shots from the movie or maybe it isn't clear enough.

collage

Insperations from pennyslidenshare

I have decided to look at Empire film magazine as it is one of the most successful film magazines out there and the most recognizable. When looking for the magazine I discovered how over priced it was in my opinion one issue was £4. Going back to my audience survey Abbie states one of the reasons she does not buy magazine is because of the price.
My analysis of the front cover. I have selected a few different front covers by Empire and I have noticed all the people have Practical or Catalogue facial expressions this shows seriousness and confidence, the main reason I think the expressions are like this is because of the genre the film is. Inception, X-men and Star Wars all have serious aspects to them they are all action based. To link in with Empire I will ask my models to look serious. I took some pictures of a Empire magazine on sale at ASDA, The contents page has a very long wordy editors not a full bleed image with no sub images. a black and red colour scheme.
the clothes the characters have on are all clean and fit them well they don't look cheaply made and aren't hanging off them this makes the cover look more professional. The characters will obviously be wearing foundation so the camera doesn't pick up any imperfections but it looks very unnoticeable and natural.
The background/ setting is CGI I can just tell as it would be cheaper to edit a background in rather than build a set of go to a destination for a photoshoot.

I have collated a collage of regional magazines to help inspire me and collect research for my regional magazine, looking at Empire was helpful to see what "Film" magazines look like but I also looked at regional marines as they are my focus. I notice that regional magazines don't have celebrity on the front as they are normally dedicated to one specific area and they focus on what goes on in that area.

Similar products

Regional megazines

NorthEastLife

http://www.northeastlifemag.co.uk/magazines

NorthEastLife is a regional magazine that is about People, places, heritage, landscape and quality of life. Published by Archant Life, Britain's biggest publishers of magazines. Archant Life also publishes Yorkshire Life, Cheshire Life, Lancaster Life, Derbyshire Life all have been running for more than 60 years.
There layout is pretty simplistic nothing to bold they use the same font which makes it look simplistic. You can only access the magazines online if you have a account.
I read a article on their website as I was not able to access a copy, the article was called "Recession? What recession? Darlington is thriving" The article is very formal no use of colloquial language. The article also contains a quote from a member of the public a VOXPOP is used.

Vibe

Vibe magazine is a magazine about Sunderland, the main cover line is "a guid to what is happening in your city" which sounds like it is a magazine based on events going on in sunderland yearly. I also think it could be a magazine for tourists as it is really high lighting the theme of summer with the subhead being "summer is ready to take off" which also links with the air show that happens every year around sunderland and sea burn.  The cover is very simplistic the colors all go well together the main color scheme is white and red which goes with the red arrows in the back ground.
This magazine is obviously regional as it follows the same conventions as NorthEastLife as they both have no recognize able faces on their magazine. They mainly rely on the region its in to sell it, events going on, major themes in the area and tourist attractions. National magazines use celebrates to sell there magazine. Vibe magazine seems to be sponsored by a lot of companies, there website has "brought to you by: Bridges,gentoo,sunderland football company, sunderland Experience it here, sunderland college, sunderland live, sunderland university and sunbeam." This magazine is also given ut at sunderland college it is in the libuary.

Spark

Spark magazine was created by Sunderland university, there website says " Spark magazine is a magazine for sunderland, which is produced by students at the university of sunderland". The university has them on display and you can pick up a copy for free. It also says "Spark is distributed to 88 schools across the region, across university campus and around sunderland" they produce every 2 months. The 2 editors have contact details on the website, Emily Parker and Megan Fife.
This magazine has a fun cover with lots going on, bright colors, red, blue, yellow. the first word that stands out is PROMS. I imagine prom is the main theme in this issue as it has a girl standing in a party dress holding a ballon, she is holding up the corner of her dress slightly which shows a blue under coat this blue also matches with the big Blue proms word connoting that is the main feature.


National magazine 
Compared to National magazines to Mojo January 2016
We can see that MOJO has a lot more subtext on the cover showing the magazine has a lot more to offer and also is implying it. MOJO has a more interesting colour scheme than NorthEastLIfe the colours white and pink go well together standing out form the black back ground. MOJO also includes posters and sub images which are magazine conventions unlick NorthEastLife which includes neither. MOJO uses words like "ULTIMATE" and "NOW" which draws in in and all its text is in capital leters to be bold and draw the eye in were as NorthEastLife has neither again, they have gone for a more softer approach also linking in with the scenic back grounds of oceans and wildlife.

I can tell that Empire uses a lot more editing techniques than Vibe and Spark I can also see that it is edited a lot better looks more clean cut and more money has been spent on the cover. I can also tell that a lot more was done on photoshop than in the photography studio with a lot of airbrushing. The model is also key in telling if the magazine is national, they use a well known actor or actress on the cover as we can see they used Jennifer Lorance the lead in the hunger games on the cover, she is well known and will appeal to a wide audience instead of having the director on the cover which would only appeal to a small film fan audience. There is a lot of text used on the cover. They also have a sub image of another actor on the cover talking about the features on the inside.

photoshoot

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I went out to Seaburn beach and took some practise shots, I decided to do a film magazine so for images they would have to be clips from a movie like in Empire. A few shots I really like picture 1 which is a mid shot of my friend Megan I think this would be a good cover, I have used selective focus in the image to show the audience what is most important in this image which is my friend Megan or our star in the movie. A this is a regional magazine it will have to be people who are from the region featured in the magazine, they can be semi famous as most film magazines always have major celebrities on their cover however, as i am doing a regional magazine they can't be major celebrates and it does not fit the conventions. 4 is a tilt which I think would make a good sub image 2 and 3 could be on the DPS like in Empire where it is a full bleed image, it is also high quality so i won't have any problem with the image being distorted. I will go out and take some more pictures with different settings and back drops, to make it seem like its a real movie with different situations being played out. The fact i took them at Seabird beach makes it seem like a regional magazine as they are in the region and this would appeal to the audience more.

Recreations

This is my recreation for a CHANEL billboard I found on google, to source the imagine on my recreation I googled "woman in sunglasses head shot" it didn't take me too long to find a suitable imagine. I used the paint brush tool on photoshop with a slight fade to give the model a shadow to make it look more professional.  I used the sample tool to get the back ground colour the same on mtg recreation. The font i used was Kannada MN Bold in different sizes.

I struggled to find a image similar to the woman in this one, couldn't find a front facing woman who looked similar with the hair and nation and facial expression so i had to go with this woman facing sideways. the over all feel looks the same how ever you don't feel as engaged with my re creation as the lady is not looking you in the eyes. i found a pretty simian text font however, the colors and sizing are very similar.

 

When recreating this Total Film magazine cover I mainly used Photoshop to add the text, the fat I found that matches the original the most for the title was Ariel black with sharp added, Total wasAmerican Typewriter, the slogan was Myriad Pro, the quote was also American Typewriter, Matt Damond was typed in Bodonl 72 and I added the Strong feature and finally the text at the bottom was also written in Myriad pro. When adding the black and white effect on to my model I found on google I was having some trouble using photoshop, overtime i tried to add black and white it linked all the layers together and turned all my text black and white. To over come this I tried to google it but found nothing that helped. I decided to copy and paste my man into power point and just change the color and added him back into photoshop. 

moodboards

Magazine ideas for a2 from pennyslidenshare
We where given a task in lesson to gather images to construct a mood board with magazine covers on it from a specific genre. I couldn't decided between backing or film so i collected images for two mood boards. I like the idea of a baking magazine because i enjoy baking as a hobby so i can make my own cakes and take photos, I was told that baking magazines are harder to work around as people aren't seen that much in them so talking about gender would be hard or even age I am aiming at. I want to do a film magazine as I do film as a  subject in college so I have good knowledge of film.
I think film would be easier to do as I can appeal to a key audience with people on covers, if a question of representation of gender comes up I will be able to cover it. The images I chose inspire me because of the colors in the baking magazine and the vintage theme, it's all so bright and colorful, the images I chose help me see the main theme of Film covers, everyone looks serious looking straight on at he camera even if its from over the shoulder. The titles are big and bold and fit the color scheme of the characters costumes.

A2 media brief

The first four pages from an original regional magazine (if done as a group task, each member of the group to produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style), together with two of the following three options: • a radio advertisement for the magazine; • two hyperlinked pages from the magazine’s website; • a billboard advertisement for the magazine.