What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The distributor of my magazine would have a very important role as it is the job of the distributor to attract the target audience. This is done through marketing, advertising and then distribution to sale outlets. Because of this I would ideally like to use a leading publisher/distributor, such as Conde Nast. I think self publishing like the magazine Clash would be too much of a risk for my magazine. Although my magazine is a music magazine (and music magazines are known as less classy and conventional than most magazines), because it is also a fashion magazine it still holds a sense of class and elegance, so it would go very well in Conde Nast's collection of classy publications. Because of this, my magazine would get credibility by association and possibly by being advertised in Conde Nast's other brands such as Vogue, Glamour, Vanity Fair. Although Conde Nast already publishes a variety of fashion magazines it hasn't yet sold a mixture of a fashion and music magazine so my magazine would be different as it focuses on the music industry as well as fashion  so therefore would get a whole new target audience which will be an advantage for Conde Nast as well as it would expand their market having appealed to a new audience. Having a large company such as Conde Nast publishing Vanity would ensure greater distributions and therefore sales. Conde Nast has distribution agreements with outlets in the UK and internationally - for example, you can pick up a copy of Vogue everywhere from WHSmiths to Tesco. And the more places my magazine is being sold, the more sales it is likely to have.
          However, even though Conde Nast may be able to publish and distribute my magazine, there is obviously going to be a price for this. Being with a big company like Conde Nast could affect my editorial independence and the company may make me pay as much attention to advertisers as I do to my target audience in order to maximise my profits. Magazines make money form the cover price and advertising and Conde Nast would find it easier to secure advertising for Vanity than I would because of their position in the publishing world. Because my magazine is a mixture of music and fashion, a lot of advertisers would be interested in my magazine and I imagine that it will be full of fashion and music ads that will suit my target audience.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Before making my music magazine I created a montage full of pictures of what my target audience would look like, how they dressed and how they posed showing there attitude as well as there fashion. The target audience for my magazine are females who generally like to make sure they look 'hot' and are up to date with the fashion.
          My magazine covers high street fashion, not really including any big names as the target audience for my magazine will range between working and middle class so the shops I would probably mention in my magazine are Topshop, River Island, H+M etc.
          My target audience are girls who are extremely into music and fashion, probably a bit more than the average person and they will really appreciate the advice and details given in the content of the magazine. My target audience could be put into the 'aspires' category as in the contents page I have mentioned celebrities and what they're wearing and how they do their hair and my audience will be very idolised by this and will buy the magazine to be inspired with ideas for fashion, hair, make up and music to keep their own 'status'.

My magazine is very mainstream and will produce information on celebrities that my target audience know and want to see, so when my audience see's the cover of my magazine they will instantly know the celebrities and be intrigued with the cover lines and therefore buy the magazine. My magazine would be great to advertise products in, obviously products that would interest my target audience. Things such as hair and beauty products, clothes, IPhone's etc, I would advertise things such as Xbox games or PS3's as these products are generally headed towards males and would not suit my target audience. Also my magazine could advertise shops to encourage the reader that these certain shops are the most decent to get products such as clothes and make up. I would be sure to offer advertisements for many shops as well as things that relate to the music industry. So, I could be featuring advertisements that link to high street (Topshop, H+M, River Island etc.)

How did you attract/address your audience?

VANITY COVER
Originally uploaded by Danni Louise

Click on photo to see annotations.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Before I started making this music magazine I had never been on Photoshop, Blogger, Flickr and I have never had to take a photo professionally to use for something like this.

          From doing this magazine I would say I have pretty much learnt the basics on the programme, Photoshop. When I first went on Photoshop I had no idea where to start, I didn't even know how to get a page up and now I feel very confident when using Photoshop and enjoy experimenting with all the different tools there are to use. The magazine itself was done on photoshop and then I presented my work on websites such as Blogger and Flickr. I was very happy with my final piece as I had never done anything like that before, however, I found that a lot of the other students in  my class were very familiar with photoshop and could get on with their work very quickly, whereas with me, if I was stuck or if I didn't understand how to change something it was very time consuming to try and work out how to do what I wanted to do so I think I would need a bit more practice with it until I could say I was completely confident with Photoshop.

          Flickr was one of the websites I used to present my work. I found this very interesting because you could link this with the website, Blogger. Blogger is very good for putting a picture up and then writing about it but when you want to write about specific parts of the picture and show the viewer what you are talking about (which is what I needed to do a lot in my evaluation) Flickr comes in very handy. I have learnt to upload my own pictures to flickr and once you have you can 'Add a note' to the picture and put it in a certain place of the picture you want to talk about and write out your evaluation. Once this is done I have also learnt to connect my pictures from flickr to blogger, so that when someone is on my blogger they will see the picture I want to show them, click on it and they can see my annotations of the picture on flickr, which isn't just Handy for me but for the viewer as well as this makes it more understandable for them to read and look into.

I had never used blogger until I started making this magazine and this website made it a lot more easier to present my work in a clear and structured way. I have learnt how to separate my work into different labels which helps a lot when organising your work into different sections, for example the planning would go in one label and the evaluation would go in another. Also, I have learnt how to make my blogger look pretty and appealing to the viewer. I can now change the background and the heading to make it look more presentable and I have learnt how to move the templates around and the blogs to make it look more organised. I'm very happy I got a chance to use blogger and I think it's a really good way to present and organise you work.

          Also, since doing this magazine I have become more familiar with using a camera. I've learnt about subjectives gazes and what poses the model should be doing to attract the viewer. I've learnt which ways are the best to have the lighting so the picture comes out nicest and I've learnt more about camera shots and angles. For my main image on my cover I did a medium close up, the model had a subjective gaze and is smiling to pull the reader in and she is in front of a plain white background facing the light. If I was to have taken a picture before doing this magazine, the quality of the picture would have been much worse than it was in the end.

Looking back at your preliminary task (the college magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back on my preliminary task, and comparing it to my finished magazine, I think the difference is clear between the two that I have most definately improved on my photoshopping skills as the project has gone on. When I did the preliminary task I had never really used photoshop before to do something of my own so it was more experimenting than actually trying to make a good cover and contents page. Also, with my music magazine it seemed a lot more important and I really wanted to have a good final piece so I become more serious when using photoshop and concentrated on getting done what I needed to get done.

          Also, when I started donig my music magazine, I looked more closely at how previous magazines generically set out their covers and contents page, which as you can see, I had no idea about doing with my preliminary task. For example, when doing my contents page for my preliminary task I really squiged all of the writing up so that it was really hard for the reader to read but when I looked through previous contents pages I found that the writing is very spaced out so it is more clear for the viewer to read and as you can see I have improved with this in my music magazine.

Through the process of using photoshop for my music magazine I learnt about new tools you could use to make your work look more impressive for example, the magic wand tool. The magic wand tool has been like a miracle while using photoshop and my preliminary task could have turned out a lot better if I'd of known about it and known how to use it.

Original Photos For Music Magazine

Third Draft Of Double Page Spread



I have added my own pictures to the double page spread and I was originally going to have five girls but it was easier just to have four and in the end I found I preferred it that way. I have moved the pink and black border from the top to the middle to make the layout slightly different. Originally, I wanted the girl by herself to have a dark background which took up all of the page to separate the double page spread but in the end I got used to the model just having a plain white background but with the picture I used it was too hard to edit the girl out on Photoshop because she is standing in front of a brick wall so I have kept some of the brick back ground and in the end I actually prefer it that way. Lesson for the future: photograph against a plain backdrop if you need to remove it later.