Layout and graphics involved within a magazine help to create a selling point to their targeted audience. If a magazine is too busy and full with different conventions then this can distract the audience from the main points and details. These magazine designs that I have chosen have simplistic but effective characteristics helping the audinec to have a focal point on the star image and other important details. Inspired by certain features within these magazines I woul like my final piece of media to include:

• Natural/ low lighting
• Possible black and white images
• Simple and bold Mastheads/fonts
• Pastel colours and writing
• Vintage feeling towards the image
• Simplistic

The above magazine covers appealed to me as they all included most of these features aswell as extra details to make them ‘the same but different’. Aswell as the features involved they are all coordinated with the Indie music genre helping me to be inspired by what could be included within my final piece.

Production Meeting Agenda:

Perparing for a photo shoot is extremely important in order for both you and the model to be organised and successful. In order to do this I have created a production meeting agenda focussing on everything I and my model needs to bring to the shoot to create the final image. Planning ahead allows me to gather a style and costume for my  model which will then complement my chosen music genre. Important faetures to focus on are:

• Costume
• makeup
• Hair
• Accessories
• Times and dates of shoots

These will all help both me and my model to know exactly whats happening and when in the direction of having a successful photo shoot.

Star Image:

Magazines usually include a cover star on the front page and throughout the magzine which is important to understand how they are percieved towards an audience in order to create a successful magazine. Creating a star image collage focused of my chosen genre has allowed me to undertsand how certain posts and images within the media represent a star as a person.

A famous star within my genre is Billie Eilish who is displayed in many different ways online towards her audience. Her extraordinary life is shown through media with her achievments and awards as well as unique fashion alowing the audience to understand her ‘star life’. However through important topics such as mental health and body image she reveals her personal life and struuggles allowing people to understand that she has an ‘ordinary life’ just like everybody else.

My Perfect Star:

Gathering an overall idea of how I want my star to look and different features within my main images is extremely imprtant in order to plan ahead. Creating a collage of images similar to the aim of my final photos has allowed me to see all the conventions used within an image to create a meaning and style.

My genre of music is Indie therefore I have chosen images which connote this genre and use conventions similar to other magazines of this music. Within my photos I will focus on the body language, makeup, costume, props and lighting/setting in order to connote meanings and reprswnt my main star towards my targeted audience.

Looking into what my perfect image would hope to be like will help me to have a base for my photos and a rough idea to follow. It has allowed me to plan ahead and choose all the conventions carefully to match my specific genre.

Research On Target Audience:

By using YouGov I have learned details about my target audience for my Indie music magazine. This website has helped to understand the features and intrests of my audience. Searching a popular artist, Billie Eilish, who produces some Indie music I have found out that my audince is both male and female however it’s primarily female with a higher percentage. The audience enjoys online entertainment, pubs and nightclubs, city breaks, beach holidays and driving connoting a chill and relaxed vibe. From searching other atrists in this area I have also found out that the age of my audience is quite a wide range but most of the audience comes from later teens who enjoy showing their individual differences. Other enjoyments and interests of my targeted audience are:

• Going to trendy resturants and bars
• mobile communication
• theatre
• rap, hip hop, 90’s music, sports, alternative and indie music

Perfect Audience Member:

Creating a dating profile on the perfect audience member for my Indie magazine has allowed me to go through the process of finding out my exact target audience. By doung so I have found out gender, age range, hobbies and intrests, music taste and their general character. This task has enabled me to understand the audience and see it from their point of view which will then help me to create my music magazine and include everything that interests them.

Creating a piktochart has allowed me to understand the competition involved within the magazine industry and how this helps producers to create their products. By researching magazines which involve my genre of music has showed how each magazine is ‘the same but different’ and what regulary appears on Indie magazines. I have focused on who they interview, what features are included, what is available to the audience, how the readers interact with artists and editors which has then allowed me to understand what I will need to include in my magazine in order to reach my targeted audience. This task has shown me how Indie magazines inform, entertain, connect to the audiences personal identity and how they socially interact helping me to have a better understanding of the competition and how to make my magazine stand out from others.

My Music Genre:

For My Music Magazine my genre of music will be Indie Pop which includes pop conventions and structures with a lightheartened and medolic sound. Some popular artist who have created indie music are, Girl In Red, Billie Eilish, Lana Del Ray, Florence+ The Machine. My music magazine will be titled ‘Indiesy’ and include a main cover star as well all the conventions typically seen on indie magazine covers. Within the process of deciding my genre of music to focus on I have created a word cloud wiht everything that will be included in order for to understand the genre and how everything will come together more easily.

Word Cloud:

Mission Statement:

“Indiesy brings together a community of indie music lovers to admire and cherish their all time favourite music. We reveal the new and exciting information on fashion, artists and exciting projects to our audience encouraging our fans to express and reveal their individuality and spark to the world. With the latest information you can find out everything about your favourite artists from home and become apart of our indie community with just a turn of a page.”

By analysing a chosen magazine, Billboard, has allowed me to focus on how the technical and formal conventions brings a magazine cover together and how it focuses on the audiences demographics and psychographics. The deomgraphics is what you can’t change about the audience e.g age, sex, who they are wheras psychograpics goes deeper into what their indivual interets are in order to achieve the targeted audience of a media text. On a magazine cover the design features can be maipulated in order to reach and attract its targeted audience including all components of Mes En Scene and coventions.

On the Billboard magazine the targeted audience is focused on 20+ gender neutral people who are fun seeking, creative and want to express their individual differences. In order for this magazine to reach its audience it has focused on the font type, colour pallette, images, language and how each component is represented. My allocated magazine uses key colours and fonts which connote a modern feel allowing the audience to feel a sense of freedom and indivduality which reaches their audience psychographics aims.

This task will now allow me to focus on all the technical and formal coventions on a magazine cover to meet my intended audience as well as understanding the audiences demographics and psychographics in order to match their interests. It will help my music magazine to focus deeper into the reasons evrything is presicely chosen in order to relate back to my targeted audience and how it can affect them.

Annotating an allocated magazine with all the technical and formal convention features on the front cover has enabled me to learn the media language for each of these features as well as being able to locate them. This has allowed me to understand how all magazines are extremely similar with their conventions making them recognizable as a magazine to the audience. All magazines include these basic conventions but having their individual differences in order for their targeted audience to recognize their magazine every time it is issued. The basic conventions included in most magazines; masthead, cover lines, main cover line, main cover star, barcode, price, plug, pug, insets and captions.

For example, on Music Week, the magazine we annotated, there is a main cover star, Lana del Rey, who is the main focus displayed on the cover. This draws the audiences attention here allowing them to discover more about the magazine. Another feature included on this magazine is the different cover lines which reveals more ideas about what will be included within the magazine. The composition and layout on the magazine is a basic effect which you see across many other media texts however it is also effective. If you split the cover into nine boxes, each aspect on the front cover is placed there for reasoning, e.g the cover star is centre drawing attention towards here.

Now understanding the ideas about the technical and formal convention features within magazines will enable me to focus on these components on my own magazine cover, making sure everything is included in order for the cover to me effective for my targeted audience.