Questions 4 to 7
- 1. 4- Who would be the audience of your media product? The target audience for Hereticus is between early teens and late twenties , it is a large range that covers various ranges of disposable income but is suitable for the genre I am promoting. This would be supported by the affordable price of the magazine and subscription. Possibly free online , supported by a payment for extra content. I would like to envision that target audience to be a equal split of genders , but in reality it has a slight lean towards male. Traditionally, it has a 70 to 30 split in magazine subscription and festival attendance. The magazine creates a house style that consumers may wish to follow , and will be able to identify others with ( Katz’s uses and gratifcations , enabling one to connect with family ,friends and society). Target audience relies more on just music taste. Clothing and other media products play a part in addition to music preference. These other choices also effect the levels of disposable income. Brands that would be associated are clothing brands such as Drop Dead ,Vans , Doc Martins and a large number of various printed t shirts from previous concerts.
- 2. In terms of the wider mediums of media , shows that my target audience would watch would be shows like Supernatural , True Blood , Game of Thrones and Archer. My target audience would buy my magazine as it is different , but all conventions that would attract them would be included and would reinforce a image of what they want to see ( Katz’s uses and gratifactions , satisfying curiosity and general interest). Question 5 – How did you attract your audience? My audience is in the 13-28 demographic. The first descision made was to use logo’s and mastheads and a colour scheme on the cover page that marked the magazine out as different. Key phrases and
- 3. images that are relevant to metal culture are used throughout the magazine show that there is actual knowledge of the genre within the magazine. Articles are not overly long , 2 pages at max each , and are accompanied by images to highlight the nature of the article. Once a reader is attracted to a article by pull out quotes and bright mastheads , the colloquial language within is more easily interpreted and understand by this younger demographic. A key feature is to tap into popular trends of the time to gain more readers who would stay on after the special editions who would transfer on to other articles within the magazine.( Katz’s uses and gratifcations , finding out about relevenat evens and conditions in society and the world). An online version would allow for easy subscription to this and a range of other products. Long articles are broken up with quotes , pull out quotes and changes in colouring to gain attention and to assist the product in appearing accessible. My contents page showed refined sets of information in short bursts that would illustrate the various articles and the varying levels of fame that the artists were experiencing at the time of publication. An example of this would be the band Dethklok whom where touring and had a burst of fame within the publication time of that issues. Creating a key article about them allows Hereticus to set its brand identity within the minds of those fans and entice them in to purchasing a subscription to Hereticus. Question 6 – What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product. Through the process of construction, I have learned about the various technologies involved within the creation of such media. I learnt how to use a professional Canon Digital camera within a profession context in the form of lighting , angles , location , background , how to pose a model , the various features and settings on a camera and whether to have a photo taken with the background as the focus or the model.
- 4. This camera enabled the capture of high quality images , and editing the photo for flaws was not required. Photoshop was used to create the magazine cover and contents page , and edit the images required. Indesign was used to create the DPS. These programs were a challenge as they had a steep learning curve , but they greatly assisted in creating the effects desired for my magazine. The ability to edit and perform techniques such as using various filters to create effects on images , and changing light gradients. I learnt about online platforms such as Blogger , Prezi , Slideshare , and Dafont. Dafont allowed the importing of unique fonts that could not be found within Photoshop , and it let me present my ideas in a way other magazines would not be able to. Despite the fact that I found them initially difficult to use , I feel that I have picked up useful experience and techniques that I can employ in the future. In particular, the recognition of the techniques that they offer which I hope I will be able to use again. Question 7 Looking back at your preliminary tasks , what have you learned from progression from it to your current product. The masthead of my initial magazine was constructed within wordart , and placed in such a way that it obstructed the main image. While this is manageable for larger magazines, this would not have been suitable for a school magazine. The puffs used where simple lines drawn with the shape features , and the text often went outside the area of the puff. Also , the fonts used often clashed. Certain parts of the copy would be with one font. Also , I did not apply conventions to the magazine such as the pricing and issue number. Ultimately , I did not even use the correct software as the software I used was Microsoft publisher.