My Best Shots: Covers Edition 1

Feedback:
'Lovely photo with a lively, all knowing smile. I like this as it creates a confident, positive representation of this age group 16-18' 
-Miss S King // Flickr
I took this medium close up with intentions of looking for a front cover photo. The location is Elsham Hall Gardens in front of a duck egg blue pained wooden cabin, I chose this location as I liked the two tones of blue from her dress and the background. My clothing instructions were 'bring something you'd wear in the summer' as I felt that that would best accommodate my TA.  I asked her to look into camera to follow conventions and her 'all knowing smile' came naturally which I felt created a nice, modern representation of young women. This was recognised in my feedback.


Feedback: There has not yet been any feedback however, I really like this photo and feel it has potential in editing.
I think this low angle medium shot would make an interesting front cover which targets 16-25 years old successfully. I wanted this photo to create, strong and fierce representations to not only empower girls but to empower all young adults. I feel this image has a sense of innocent and natural beauty which is refreshing while the media is creating unrealistic beauty standards.

Feedback: This also hasn't had any comments yet, however, I think after editing this image would be great for a front cover.
The location was the main point of this photoshoot, I wanted to use the sunflower field as it breaks stereotypes and creates a new gender representation; the connotations of flowers are very feminine so I wanted to challenge that and prove that flowers doesn't have to be 'girly'. I had him pose slightly angled in centre frame with his arms crossed and a tough facial expression to still ensure I catered for some of the expected conventions of men in the media. For a first edition I didn't want to challenge too many conventions as it could lead to the magazine being unsuccessful. Something that made the shoot difficult was the lighting in correlation to the flowers; to have the flowers facing the camera, the sun had to be behind the model which made odd shadows and finding the correct exposure difficult.



Feedback: There is currently no comments on this photo.
For a unisex fashion and lifestyle magazine, I wanted some two shot cover photos with both a male and female. I originally did a photoshoot with two people both wearing the same outfit to highlight the idea of unisex fashion however, I didn't feel any of them were right to go on the cover. I like this image as it is low angle and has different levels in it. Something I've noticed since uploading and sorting through the photos is Kim has her phone in her pocket and Leyton has charity wrist bands on, there is also a telegraph pole in the background. Despite there being a few unwanted items I still really like this photo and think it has potential to be a good cover.

Magazine Website Research

ELLE Magazine- Website

Under the title 'Fashion' on the navigation bar there were lots of fashion related features with a headline and an image.

Across the website, the official photoshoot images were used for subheading and at the top of a new page. Candid/ paparazzi shots were used for the features.

Red Magazine- Website

Both the websites have images that reach across from either side at the top of the page. They also use an image to place a heading on top. 

There is a seasonal section to keep up with fashion trends.

Gender Representations

Men's magazines

When you type in 'Men's fashion magazines' here are the representations you are presented with. A common convention is a stern or serious facial expression creating a strong and stereotypical masculine representation usually in a medium or medium close up shot. The colour scheme is very muted sticking to various shades of grey and blue and the pop of colour is red used in the masthead.

Here are 'Men's lifestyle magazines'. The representations here are suggesting that a man's life should focus on "Men's Health" and 'Men's Fitness'. The use of a san-serif font is very popular. There are more aggressive language "Kill mode" and the words "abs", "six pack" and "arms" are repeated across the covers suggesting that body image is the main focus of men's 'lifestyle' magazine.

Neither of the men's magazine are very diverse, out of the 28 magazines shown here is only 2 body types represented and only 2 ethnic representations. Furthermore, there aren't many brands of fashion or lifestyle magazines for men therefore limiting the amount of representations there are which is quite exclusive to a small amount of people.Overall the representation of men from the magazines is very narrow and stereotypical, sporty, strong, straight men

'Women's fashion magazines' conventionally have the serious but seductive facial expression which creates a representation of women dressing to be desirable and attractive. The range of colours is a bit more varied than the men's magazines but they are still quite muted. The covers seem to be more minimalist than the men's with either less features around the border or the font is finer and usually in serif.

The ideas about looking good and living healthily is still presented here but in a different way; the words are much more positive and gentle "allure" creating similar representations to the fashion magazine about being attractive. The colours are obviously much brighter with pink being a popular choice. The covers are much more busy with features which is a similarity to the men's magazine however, they appear to be more gossip focused rather than fitness.

I feel that the women's magazine has a bit more diversity then the men's magazine in representing ethnicity but representations of body type is still very exclusive. Unlike the men's there are a few more brands of fashion and lifestyle magazines which means there is more representations. Overall the representation of women from the magazines is also very narrow and stereotypical, beautiful, attractive women.

LGBTQ+ magazines has been created into a genre on its own, a fashion and/or lifestyle magazine for LGBTQ+ community members doesn't seem to exist presenting a huge gap in the market. The magazines that are there have very supportive representations, the "DIVA" magazine has a women looking directly into camera with an all knowing smile which creates some wonderfully positive representations suggesting that being a part of their community is great and that they are there for each other in a society that may not except them. There is a few more colours used however a few of the magazines use less vibrant colours like the general men and women's magazines. "vogue" used a 2 shot which is not seen in neither the men's or women's magazines again creating new representations and breaking conventions. I feel that as LGBTQ+ magazines are a new creation they have a much more modern, healthy way of representing their magazines and overall have a positive representation.

Photoshoot Plan: Edition 2 - Autumn

Magazine Photoshoot Plan

Edition 2: Autumn

Features

- Fashionable to wear

- Fashionable to go/do

- Fashionable to eat / drink

- Fashionable to listen to

- Fashionable to watch

- Fashionable theatre

- Fashionable to put on your face (Skin care and beauty)

- This season’s holiday’s- Halloween/ Bonfire night

- This season’s favourites

- Study section

- Activate your mind (Interactive quiz/ puzzle)

- Bored? The fun-loving go getter section

- Social Media (interactive)

- What you can do to save our planet this season

What, where, when, who?

Wear- studio, Friday, kyai, grace

Go/do- woods, tbd, charlotte, leyton

Eat/drink- phillipa’s house, tbd, lottie, phillipa

Listen to- studio, Friday, harry, megan

Watch- home, tbd, tbd

Theatre- London?, 19^th October, Drama class

Beauty- studio, Friday, Isabel, kyai

Holidays- phillipa’s house, tbd,tbd

Favourites- studio, Friday, no one

Study- Class room, tbd, Aric, chloe

Photoshoot Plan: Edition 1- Summer

Magazine Photoshoot Plan

Edition 1: Summer
Red= got photos for
Step 1: Features
- Fashionable to wear
- Fashionable to go
- Fashionable to eat / drink
- Fashionable to listen to
- Fashionable to watch
- Fashionable to go and watch (theatre)
- Fashionable to put on your face ( Skin care and beauty)
- Festival Guide
- Fitness
- This seasons favorites
- Study section
- Activate your mind (Interactive quiz/ puzzle)
- Bored? The fun-loving go getter section
- Save the planet
- Social Media

Step 2: Models
 Girls
- Isabel
- Charlotte
- Lottie
- Kim
- Megan
 Boys
- Sam R
- Kyai
- Leyton
- Harry


Step 3: Locations
- Broughton bridge road (all Fashion / Fitness)
- Pebbly Beach (Travel/ Food+ drink)
- Woodland (Bored?/ Save the planet)
- Field ( Festival Guide)
- Studio (fashion/ This month/Music/ film/ Social media, health + beauty)
- Home (study/ Hair)

Step 4: Which model for each feature?
- Male Fashion- Leyton, Kyai,
- Female Fashion- Kim
- Genderless Fashion- Charlotte, Sam
- Fashionable to go-
- Fashionable to listen to- Megan
- Fashionable to watch- Leyton, Isabel
- Fashionable to put on your face- Charlotte, + another
- Festival Guide- Isabel, Kyai
- Fitness- Lottie
- This season's favorites
- Study section- Leyton, Kyai
- Activate your mind (Interactive quiz/ puzzle)
- Bored? The fun-loving go getter section
- Save the planet
- Social Media

Step 5: What shoot when? (original)
This changed many times as people were not available, the weather wasn't good.

Step 6: Conventions
- Looking into camera (cover)
-Neutral facial expressions
*Add more*

Instructions to Models

*Bring whatever you have, don’t feel you have to bring everything*

Men’s Fashion
- Shirts - Flannels, stripes, plain, Hawaiian etc
- T- shirts - black, white, long, baseball etc
- Jeans - Black, blue, ripped, non-
ripped etc
- Shorts - denim, patterned, non-patterned etc
- Jackets- denim etc
- Watch
- Sunglasses
- Shoes- Vans, converse, trainers, ones
you’d wear in the summer

Women’s Fashion
- Dresses- bodycon, summer, t-shirt, floral, maxi etc
- Play/Jumpsuits
- Top- Cami, t-shirts, floral,
stripes, plain, graphic,
print etc
- Shorts- Denim, cotton,
floaty, skort etc
- Jeans- Black, Blue, ripped,
non-ripped etc
- Skirts- floaty, a-line,
bodycon, Maxi etc
- Shoes- vans, converse, trainers, sandals, heels, anything you’d wear in the summer
- Watch
- Earrings- studs, dangly etc
- Sunglasses
Sports Wear
- Sports top- t-shirt (fitted/not fitted), vest/ tank top
- Shorts
- Leggings
- Joggers
- Trainers

Beach/ Holiday clothing
- Swimwear
- Swimwear cover
- Light weight clothing
- Shorts
- Summer shirts
- Sunglasses
- Hats
- Picnic basket/ beach bag

Health and Beauty
- Please bring your makeup- eyeshadow, eyeliner, lipstick etc

Casual
- Anything you’d wear day to day in the summer

NEA Magazine TA Research

Target Audience Research

 I had 48 useful responses from people aged 16 to 25. The majority of my responses were from females aged 16 to 18.                                                                                                The survey revealed that the most popular choices for females was fashion and beauty and the most popular for males was film, closely followed by gaming; implying there may be a gap in the market for male fashion magazines and also film/ gaming magazines for females.

One question I asked on my survey, was 'What catches your eye the most in a magazine?' and the responses suggested that it was the image. This really highlights to me that the framing, clothing, hair/makeup, shot type, mise en scene etc are critical in pleasing my target audience. Images are closely followed by the headline/ main article again allowing me to see that the if my magazine didn't have a relatable, interesting, catchey, funny/ shocking headline people will be less likely to pick it up.

A final question on my survey askes how often they read magazines; this question is quite interesting as 80% of the responses reveal they hardly ever read magazines, likely due to advances in technology where they read magazine content online via social media. This consequently creates a huge gap in the market for 16 to 25 year olds, allowing me to create something new that will interest readers my own age. Furthermore, linking social media into the magazine would be hugely beneficial as it will attract 16 to 25 year olds and also promote the website created for the magazine.

Research 3: Bauer Media Magazines

Bauer Media Magazines

Bauer Media has an older target audience than Hearst Magazine.

Bauer's magazines for 18-25 year olds only consists of 3 magazines: Empire, Heat and Kerrang. Their "Milennial's Chapter" is mainly based online and through other media platforms rather than a printed magazine- therefore leaving a gap in the market.

"Twelve months in the making, The Millennials Chapter is our first major audience led study and the first major release from Bauer Knowledge, our research and insight division. Using both qualitative and quantitative research, we have unearthed powerful findings about the pressures, passions and motivations that both unite and differentiate one of our strongest audiences, digitally native 16-34 year olds." - Bauer Media

Empire:

• 75% male
• Age 18-40 (Average age 36)
• Employed
• Usually in a relationship (although not necessarily married)
• University educated 
• Poor (little disposable income)

Heat:

• 89% Female
• Age 15-35 (Average age 35)
• 47% are marred or are living with their partner

Kerrang!:

• Age 16-35
• 41% Female 59% Male
• Mostly rock music based