Lucy Carr
AS Media
Report
Pre-Production
For my pre-production I chose to create two magazine front
covers, of which I accumulated primary research including the use of secondary
sources in my textual analysis on two front covers and creating a questionnaire
via Survey Monkey, then analysing my results found.
I analysed other magazine covers that would give me
inspiration for my pre-production.
To capture the audience, December 2012 Glamour magazine has
their model, singer Cheryl Cole, was smiling and making eye contact with the
camera, with the appearance of a very pretty and happy women. The way in which
she is looking straight into the camera lens is seen as a way to draw in the
audience. With this in mind, I decided to have my models looking directly into
the camera lens, to make the readers feel as though they have direct eye
contact with the readers of my magazine. Although, to contrast with the Glamour
magazine, I chose to have my models looking more serious to portray power and
independence to the audience. This also makes the magazine not capturing as if
the model is looking directly to you. Furthermore, the use of colour within the
front of the Glamour magazine is very feminine due to them having used bright
pink, this also stands out with the bold font of the masthead and the cover
lines on the white background. Therefore I Incorporated this into my
preproduction as I used a large, bold font using the colour red for passion and
love, also the colour white for the cover lines to convey an innocence of the
model. Additionally, the mise-en-scene within the Glamour magazine, included a
plain white background allowing the model to stand out. Also the clothes of
which Cheryl is wearing a very pretty, as if she's about to go out somewhere
important, this will allow the magazine to be eye-catching because girls, who
are the target audience for this magazine, may like her outfit. Additionally
the way in which Cheryl has been positioned on the front cover of the Glamour
magazine, follows the role of thirds as she is in the centre of the page. As
well as that, Cheryl has been placed in front of the masthead covering up some
of the letters within the name conveying the magazine is well known due to the
readers already knowing how to identify this magazine. Therefore, for one of my
front covers I've placed the model in front of a white background in order for
her to stand out and look more powerful. Although my second front cover, I
chose to take the picture of the model in front of bushes and trees because it
was winter themed and it allowed the natural high-key lighting to set the scene
of a cold winters day. One of my models is wearing a pretty dress to look as if
she's on a night out, however at the same time not having much skin on show
making her not look sexualised. Whereas my second model is wearing a scarf and
a big jacket as that would be a common convention of a winter magazine.
From analysing this Glamour magazine cover, I predict that
the main target audience of this magazine will be women due to the white, pink
and black colour chooses. Therefore encouraged my pre-production to be purely
based on women. I believe the age range of the audience will be 20 to
30-year-olds as it talks about "men's sexual habits" which would be
inappropriate for a young teenager. However I decided to target more 16-21 year
olds as I preferred the young fashion idea. Lastly the audience will be around
C1-E on the socio-economic model because the uses and gratifications of this
magazine, will be to entertain the audience allowing them to escape from reality
giving them an emotional release after a hard day’s work. However it might also
be informing as it includes gossip about the celebrities therefore may also
include aspects of social integration as it will allow discussion between
people who buy this magazine. My purpose was to aim my audience at a similar
socio-economic range, between C2-E as there won't be many 16-21 year olds in an
occupation in group C1. Additionally, the main uses and gratification for my
pre-production and production is to entertain, as I believe students can read
it after a long day at school or college etc. As well as that, it will be
informative, as big fans of this magazine or readers will see it as a way to
find out information about their favourite celebrity.
I then created a questionnaire to gather primary research
which influenced the presentation of my pre-production, asking questions such
as, “what type of magazine do you read” “What would you buy a magazine for” “What
attracts you to a magazine?”
With the majority of the audience being between the ages of
11 to 20 years old, influenced my target audience to also be around that age as
a young fashion magazine. To portray this in my own pre-production, I made sure
my models were also around that age, therefore making it obvious to whom my
target audience is. 70% of the people who answered my survey were female,
therefore alongside with my textual analysis, influenced both of my front
covers to have a female model because this then reflects who my target audience
is. Furthermore, I found out that 50% of the asked audience prefer fashion
magazines, and the least favourite type of magazine was sport. This gave me a
good indication for my pre-production to be on fashion as it seems it is the
most popular. Additionally my questionnaires results highlight that the most
popular attraction to a magazine is the main image and the least popular
attraction is the font. This then gave me the idea to make the image of my
model to cover the whole front page, as I believe it draws the readers in more
as it is eye-catching. As well as this, I included a big, bold and simple font,
making it stand out in order for the audience to instantly spot it alongside
all the other types of magazines. Lastly, from the information and data I
gathered from my questionnaire, I found out that the audience aren't tempted
into buying a magazines by the competitions within it, more so by the image.
Therefore I didn't add a competition within the pre-production nor the
production as I focused on the presentation and the other aspects to draw in
the audience. My questionnaire results helped me to create and design my
pre-production as it gave me a clear insight on what genre is most popular,
allowing my magazine to be worth the read.
Production
I believe my production piece is successful in the way I have
made it the same genre as my pre-productions, therefore they link well together.
I made an interview style double-page spread where I ask the fashion designer
(my friend) about her life before and after her occupation. I began with
planning the first A4 page to be a big, black and white picture of Megan (my
chosen model), with near to no writing as my main image. This is eye-catching
as she is looking glamorous and has direct eye contact with the camera lens.
This gives the readers the impression that she is looking directly at them,
which allows them to be drawn in by this picture, making it very effective and,
again, successful. For the written section of my production I decided to do an
interview between me (interviewer) and Megan (model), talking about her life as
a fashion designer and how she grew up with this strong ambition, with near to
no money e.g. “What is your inspiration” “how long have you been in the fashion
industry” “what was it like growing up with this desire” “how did you start
this ambition” and “if you could go back to any hiera, which one would it be
and why”. I believed this was effective as teenage girls around 16-21 are
stereotypically interested in fashion and gossip. People find fashion as an
easier way to express themselves as a person, therefore influenced me to have
that as the genre of my magazine. My creation also fits the uses and
gratifications model as it has social integration factors due to the audience
being able to convert over the article allowing friends to feel more united as
them have another interest in common. Additionally my double-page spread has a
sense of personal identity with the designer, maybe some members of the
audience can relate to the desire of wanting something but not having the right
resources to act upon it. Therefore puts the designer on the same level as the
audience. Another strength of my magazine is that the text and colours are bold
and bright making my production more eye-catching and young-like. I also used the
same colour for the mass head of the production to the questions within the
interview to bring the whole thing together, instead of introducing another
colour and risking a messy and busy look.
If I were to improve certain aspects of my production piece I
would add more images on my written side of the page to maybe capture Megan's
earlier life as a fashion designer and compare it with her life now and see the
drastic change. I would also include a caption on the main image as it is a
main magazine convention and would add more authenticity to my work.
I based the main layout of my production on a vogue double
page spread about Lady Gaga. I used their idea of having a giant picture of the
model on the left page in black and white as I believed it is very effective.
However they talk about Lady Gaga's life and things which she has accomplished,
whereas I found it easier to write an interview between me and Megan.
Furthermore, I was inspired by their idea of having simple horizontal lines
under the masthead, and at the bottom of the page due to it creating a simple
boarder to my production piece. Lastly I noticed that the picture taken of Lady
Gaga makes her look very sexualised as she doesn't seem to be wearing any
clothes, only black chains around her neck. However this, I saw as
inappropriate for my production task as my magazine is aimed at 16-21 year
olds, it wouldn't be seen as a good influence on the readers. Therefore, I had
Megan in a body-con dress, in order for her to look appealing, although it has
a high neck so it isn't revealing.
To conclude, I believe my two front covers and my double-page
spread are successful, and if I were to recreate these I know the improvements
and changes I would make. I feel as though my pre-production are the main eye-catcher
among my audience as my use of bright colours. I believe my target audience
would take a preferred reading of my magazine as they would be interested in
fashion and gossip. Older people however, 50+years, will take the oppositional
reading as they may not know who the models are nor have any interest in modern
fashion nor gossip. Lastly, I believe the negotiated reading will be from
20-30years as it seems mature enough for someone of that age, however may get deterred
through the topic of fashion designers.
