Question 5

Mise en Scene

The mise en scene that I picked out for the costumes, location and body language all needed to attract the audience. Instead of choosing how this would look on the day, I needed to plan beforehand so that I was sure it would look professional and for it all to come together in the end.

Were they successful?

Body Language

Costume

Location

When creating this magazine, I needed to decide what would the audience of this magazine dress like. After some research, a lot of people in the 'indie' subculture, tend to dress in dark muted colours or a lot of black. To add some colour into the models outfit, I asked her to wear a blue checked shirt which would stand out in the photoshoots. I wanted the model to dress similar to how the audience dress to link the two together.

I used the studio at college for my location so that I could take the pictures in front of the blank wall in case I wanted to add something behind her on the final cover. This would be easier for me in the editing stages to delete any shadows or distractions in the process.

Something that I needed to get across perfectly was the body language of the model. To make it look like the model I used was a real musical artist, she needed to use her body language to persuade the audience. To do this, I asked her to do a range of poses such as close ups of her smiling, to her sitting down with a pout. By having a variety of pictures with different poses and styles, I would be able to select the best one when creating the actual product. I needed the model to look the part to attract the audience to buy the magazine along with getting across she is the real thing. If the model looks professional, then the whole look of the magazine will come together and people are more likely to buy the magazine instead of having someone who doesn't fit the image.

It is hard to see in early stages if my techniques were successful or not. Although, I do think that the features I've used to attract my target audience, do attract the correct people. As said previously, I have included content that my demographic will be able to relate to as a whole and where a majority of people will have something in common by the issues I've inputted. By including the other set of content, aside from the main story, I have listed different events on the contents page which people in the said demographic are into. For examples, there are various line ups for a handful of festivals coming up in later months. I included this as people in this age group tend to want to go and it is something a lot of people are interested in.

Narrative

Despite not creating a short film, I would say that my music magazine does have a narrative that runs throughout the product. I wanted the main story to be quite big which is why I decided to write an interview about how the artist made her career. I included an interview as that is what my target audience

wanted. To make it stand out, I wanted the interview to be something along the lines of the interviewer asking how they came to success through the use of social media which has a big impact today.

Audience Feedback

As I needed to see if my work really did attract the right audience, I asked someone who would fit right into the Indie genre to see if what I created was successful.

Kate, 17: I think that the features and content that this magazine uses does attract the target audience. The overall design of the magazine does use conventions of the Indie genre. I like how this magazine is based around Indie music as there isn't a variety of popular magazines out there with this type of music. Also, the content inside is something that people my age will actually enjoy to read. There are magazines out there which don't relate to their genre but this does. For example, the use of festival line ups which have many Indie artists this year, more than ever before. Along with that, the content of the double page spread article/interview is something that we can relate to, and what us teens want to see published.

How did you attract/address your audience?

How does your text speak to it's audience - informal or formal?

What techniques did you use to attract the interest of your audience?

Throughout the magazine, I would like to think that the text is informal. I didn't want it to be seen as formal as it can put people off wanting to continue reading. By having the text informal, it can be seen as a easy read which flows naturally, instead of having a structure and a type of address that doesn't reflect the audience. Also, by having informal texts, it lets the audience and readers know that the content inside isn't a serious tone.

To make it easier for me to bring the target audience in so they will read the music magazine, I need to include features that would interest them. So to do this, I decided to rely a lot on the content I will include. For example, having a story that people can look up to and which involved issues that many people of my demographic will be able to relate to. The main story in the magazine talks about a girl who has made it from the bottom in the music industry. Teenagers tend to be seen as lazy people and are 'stupid' for having large dreams and aspirations, the story is a large contrast to this. By also including a competition that readers can enter to win also attracts people if the end prize is something they are likely to be interested in. It is all about interesting them so that they will want to pick

up the magazine in the first place.

What my audience wanted

Even though I followed the codes and conventions of a music magazine, I decided to listen to what my target audience wanted. By doing this, I am creating a magazine that my audience will want to buy rather than creating something else. I followed some of their choices such as the price of the product. I didn't want to select a price that wouldn't be realistic for my audience to purchase. As you can see below, there are some of the responses I received from my first audience survey about my music magazine.