PreliminaryTask Feedback

For the feedback of my preliminary task I was told that for the front cover I should have had a person to be the main feature. However due to the fact that I did have the bass on the front I should have had a picture of someone playing the featured bass, which I didn't.

Also on the cover instead of the actual date I should have just had January edition or maybe have even made it a ‘per term’ magazine. As well as changing the date on the front I should have also had the date on the contents page.
The exclusive bar at the bottom should have featured the same text as that on the rest of the page as it broke away from the standard magazine font style.
My contents page was not as conventional as it should have been. For example I should have used columns instead of the strange zigzag pattern I used. Seeing as I used this I should have also used more pictures beside each piece of text to fill in the dead space.
I was told that my contents page could have been a bit lighter due to the fact it was a college magazine.

I took a poll of the 5 titles i came up with for my rock magazine and got people within my target audience age (16-29) and the results for my poll was:

Download - 6

Session - 3

Tune - 5

Overdrive - 13

Remastered - 2

Ideal Audience

This is Kaimen McCreed. He is 17 years and 4 months old and lives in a council flat on a run down estate in north London.
He enjoys online gaming with his few select friends and spending the occasional weekend looking around the Camden stalls in search of Anime-themed nik-naks and band merchandise to add to his pile of clothes and junk he keeps pushed to the side of his room.
Due to being kicked off his apprenticeship course for lack of attendance and negative attitude towards putting in the required effort because "he couldn't be bothered", he spends his weekdays getting up at 2pm. He rolls out of bed to throw on yesterdays yesterdays clothes, which consist of dark blue jeans that are two sizes too wide and one size too long, fit with a bike chain hanging from his waist to his mid-thigh and one of his many dark coloured tees. He pulls his frayed hat over his greasy bed head. After "dressing" he is forced by his pub owning parents to go and look for a job, at which point he leaves his house to meet friends under a Camden bridge to consume substances until 6pm when he returns home to dive into his room to hide from his parents and brothers.
While he spends the majority of the daytime asleep or under the influence of substances, from about 8pm until approximately 4am he likes to alternate between illegally streaming films and music to reading books like Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and a variety of Manga series. His taste in films is very similar to his taste in books and, due to this, the number of views of his downloaded file of Lord of the Rings is reaching 100.
While in transit to places, he likes to read one of the magazines he is subscribed to (however it is his parents that pay for the subscriptions) such as Classic Rock. Not only does he read Classic Rock, but he likes to stop by his local corner shop to pick up the weekly editions of Kerrang and Revolver.
Along with reading the magazines, he likes to use his cracked iPhone 4 to listen to his downloaded music via his Skull Candy Crushers. He enjoys listening to Paramore, Alexisonfire, System of a Down and Metallica along with others.
I believe that he would be the ideal audience for my magazine as it will contain information on bands as well as giveaways (like posters). Despite his lazy persona and lack of social interaction, he still has a good sense of humour which is good because the magazine will be a lighthearted and funny magazine and therefore aimed at a wider age range.

In the lesson today i have nearly completed the flat plan of my front cover and it will be complete by the end of the day. I have also thought about the type of cover picture I will want and how this picture will help me with my pictures that i will use on the double-spread interview.
By the end of the day i will also have used social media and in person techniques in which i will ask my target audience what name for my magazine i will use. By asking the target audience what name they prefer i will be able to reach the audience easier due to the fact that they have had an influence in the choice of name.

Teenage Film Posters

The Inbetweeners (2011)

The stereotypical views of teenagers are all portrayed in 'The Inbetweeners', (4 STEREOTYPES HERE)!!!.
Due to how they are portrayed their facial expressions are used to represent their personalities. For example the cynical look on Will's face, the want-to-be-cool smile on Jay, the look of awe from Simon and finally the open mouthed smile/laugh from Neil.
Also, their costumes portray the characters as Jay's shirt is an England football polo. This shows that he is a 'lad' and very British. Will's shirt shows us that he is a smart, supposed know it all.
It could be said that once you have watched the film that the arrangement of the characters that it is intentional to put Jay and Will at the front. Not only can Will be considered the main character (due to the fact it is him that narrates everything) but Will and Jay could be said to have had the most development of themselves throughout the film and therefore that is why they were placed on the front. It may have also been that they are possibly they are the two favourite characters and it was a marketing technique used in order to draw in more viewers.
The placement of the title is centre top, written in a text that resembles neon signs outside clubs in foreign countries, this font was obviously chosen due to the setting being in a foreign country in clubs.
Not only is the title in the neon on font (and a neon blue) but the sides of the poster stand out due to the bright colours and blur effects added to them.
Also, as the 'movie' is in yellow and obscure to the bottom left of the title it stands out, signifying it is not part of the TV series. Almost as if it is a sign hanging off the title.
The tag line 'This summer four boys become men' signifies they are going on a 'lads' holiday and that it is a right of passage for men to do.


Juno (2007)





It could be said that in this film teens could be said to be irresponsible due to the teenage pregnancy, and also that teenagers are clueless in regards to consequences (in the poster Cera is scratching his head and staring blankly, this is a good use of facial expressions).
The background of the poster is the same pattern as Page's shirt possibly signifying the fact that she is the main character, although that is fairly obvious.
The font of the title is like it has been drawn, making it look slightly childish due to the fact the sides of the letters are only roughly coloured in.
The layout of the poster overall leaves quite a bit of dead space. However, this sticks with the theme of quite a simple and yet complex film.
It sticks to a clear colour scheme of orange, white with the green of the title (and speech marks) standing out.
The tag line is 'A comedy about growing up... and the bumps along the way.' which is clearly a reference to Juno's pregnancy.



Kick-ass (2010)

 

The representation of teenagers in this film is that they can be seen to be dreamers and that they shouldn't be taken seriously. Another thing we are shown by the poster is that it is quite a made up and very fictional film, due to the effect on the characters. This effect is that of a paint splash, possibly signifying the ideas of being in a comic book or at least being influenced by comics.

The majority of the poster is of the characters. This is because at the time this was released it was the biggest, if only, 'superhero' film and therefore the background (which says Kick ass) didn't need to be seen.

The colour scheme of this also points to a comic book theme due to the reds, greens and yellow. This gives off the impression of being childish/light-hearted as they are very bright colours on a black background.

The tag line is very plain and simple. It doesn't need to be explained and also includes the title of the film. This may be a marketing technique as it means there are two things that say kick ass, and therefore people are more likely to remember it.

College Magazines

The college magazines use similar concepts to that of music magazines in that they generally use a picture of a person and have them centered with text around that person - A good example of this is:

This picture uses good use of the space without obstructing the main focus, the girl. Another way this cover has shown she is the focus (as well as framing the picture so that she is center but also they have used an effect so that the back drop is all out of focus.

A similarity found in most music magazines is that most or a lot contain an artist with blank space behind them, this blank spance is then filled in be information and therefore gets rid of any 'dead space' - Examples:

These are all mid shots. The concept of a person in blank space is also used with close ups - Examples:



In 'Kerrang' magazine a main concept is to have all of the band members on the front and have text on the sides or possibly on a body part of a band member - Examples

This Paramore cover is very smart about both the pose of the band and also the placement of the text as the text doesnt obscure any of their faces and yet still doesnt leave any space left open.

A common feature of guitarist magazine is to have an instrument (and possibly and amp) on the cover. This is expected due to the name - Examples:

This cover shows a Gibson Custom 1956 Les Paul and this is what would display what the magazine is about straight away, drawing in the audience.

Another magazine is Top Gear magazine, which is aimed at motor lovers just like music magazines are aimed at musicians and people that like music.



Just like the concept of having a music artist on a music magazine, instead just replacing the artist with a car and/or motor-vehicle of some kind (usually with more cars behind the main feature) - Example:

Due to the fact it is a car magazine that focus's on not just engines and the internal but the aesthetics of cars too, the text is placed to that it isnt covering any of the car, including the title.