Model organization

In order to be prepared for the day, I communicated with my models a few days before to ensure they knew the outfit I wanted and how to be dressed etc. So what I did was text my model and tell her what to wear, where to be and at what time. this meant that i could arrange a date where the weather an day would be suitable for my photos. 

My models where my friend Amber, aged 17, her brother aged 10 and my sister aged 10. I chose these as my models because I can co-operate the fashion/beauty content with the family/events content. I found it really useful to have an age range because that has what inspired me in magazines such as 'VIBE', it always used photographs of adults with children just to give that regional culture feel. 

Photoshoot planning

Although I have already taken my photographs, I have still been working on my research and planning. However, I did do some planning on weather, locations etc before hand so that I could get the best out of my day and high quality images. 

The location 
I know that all of my locations are open to the public all day, everyday so I could just pick which day I wanted. I also knew that Herrington Country Park had a cafe and park which would cater us for the day. (Two of my models were 10 year old so it would occupy them, hence why I chose these locations). 

The weather on the day was just right. I didn't want it to be too bright or too dull, so it was just in-between. the day my images were taken was on the 27th October. I took my images around 13:00 hours as it was the most suitable weather and I could get there for that time. 

As you can see, it was quite a cloudy day but still some sunshine. I feel like this gave me good lighting for the images I took, and it will also represent the typical weather in Sunderland. 

I did also plan the times I would set off which was around 12:30pm so that I could get their at a suitable time where it won't be as busy or hectic. To do this I planned by bus timetable and models to meet at a certain place so that we would all arrive together and be organized.  I made sure my models available at this specific date as everything would be organized and the weather would be suitable. 

Audience Profiles

Unfortunately, I had difficulties attaching the actual presentation so I took a screenshot. I have found Prezi very useful for my A2 Coursework as it allows me to present my work creatively. This has progressed since the start of my AS coursework as I am now more familiar with how to use websites such as Prezi. 

By creating these audience profiles, it allows me to express the sort of audience I will be appealing to.  It reminds me of the interests of my target audience, therefore it will keep me on track with what I need to include to make my magazine interesting and enjoyable to each reader. In addition, by using the software 'Prezi', I am becoming more confident on how to navigate it and create a good piece of work which enriches my blog. I have chosen four random people from my friends to show the sort of interests that my age group have in mind. They all have a different area of interest which is ideal for my culture magazine as I want to include a variety of content that links to my region. 

Time management

In today's lesson, I am going to finish my audience profiles using Prezi. One this is finished, I can then go onto doing more work on my photoshoot organization. I have already taken my photographs but I am still working on my research and planning posts before I can include my images. I feel that I am making steady progress and will be going onto my constructions very soon.

Recce

Presentation 3 from shantelle bowman

Readers Profile

By creating this slide on my readers profile, it allows me to sum up the basic information of my target audience. I have changed my target audience quite alot, so it narrows it down and makes it easier for me to follow. I feel that I now have a specific audience and can progress onto my contructions with a good mind set on what I want my final products to be. 

It has changed slightly since my pitch was made because I have done more research and planning and found that it is more suitable to have my target audience as just female because of the content I am including. I have shown this development through recent blogposts. 

Readers profile from shantelle bowman

Time management

During today, I aim to complete most of the potential target audience section and then go onto my flat plans and rationale. This will put me in a position where I can be ready to start constructions when I go to college, meaning I wont be behind.  I am creating my posts on different software's so that my blog has media rich content.

Location Scout

The locations I have chosen all represent Sunderland culture in some way. The places I am choosing all represent different parts of Sunderland where families may go for a day out. They really do show regionalism, as everyone in Sunderland will more than likely know what and where they are. 

Penshaw Monument
Penshaw Monument is a striking landmark of the North East and a symbol of home to those who live in the area. In 1844 it was built in memory of John George Lambton. No one coming to Penshaw for the first time can fail to be impressed by the sight of the Greek Temple which dominates the skyline above the entrance to the Herrington Country Park. For Wearsiders in particular and to many living in Tyneside and Durham, Penshaw Monument is the sign of home. However, this is not Greece and this is no ordinary temple.

By choosing this location, it really gives that feeling of 'home' and representation of our region. In addition, it is a place to go for people of all ages to enjoy a day out. Taking some of my photographs here will really show passion for my region and linking it with the culture of Sunderland. I am planning to take photographs of my friend, her brother and my sister as it is an age variety and shows different age categories for my magazine. I have a few camera shots in mind to make my magazine look professional and show my inspiration from magazines such as VIBE Sunderland. I feel like I could get some really good beauty/fashion shots from my model against the bollards of the Penshaw Monument. 

Herrington Country Park
My next location scout is Herrington Country Park which is just across the road from Penshaw Monument. One of the largest parks in Sunderland with walks and cycle trails, family cycling with Sustrans, an adventure play area, skate boarding, Nordic walking, model boat sailing in the lake and a variety of sculptures that celebrate the heritage of the area. It's home to many exciting events like the Sunderland Festival, Race for Life and has hosted the National Cross Country Championships, Radio 1 Big Weekend, The BIG Bike Ride and the 2012 Olympic Torch Celebration.

By choosing this location I feel like it gives me a range of options for photographs which is ideal for my magazine as I am covering a range of content. The ideas I have for this location are the lake which is home to many bird species, photographs of family on the park, and the scenery that comes with it. The benefits of using this location is that it is right next to where I want my other images, so it bring it all together in one go. Many people from Sunderland are familiar with this park and go here often with family. The events that are held here are also attractions to my potential target audience so I could also take images of them to make my content more interesting and advertise the different events in Sunderland. 

Silksworth Lakes 
Silksworth Lakes were created in the early eighties as a part of the reclamation of the old Silksworth Pit. The entire site was developed to include an athletics track, artificial ski slope, a large all weather games area and two lakes. The lake known as the Bottom Lake was established as a fishing venue whilst the Top Lake was originally designed for on the water activities. i.e. boating etc.The bottom lake very quickly became a popular angling venue and has continued to thrive over the years.

I chose this location because it is just around the corner from where I live, and it shows a bit of history within Sunderland. The lake is very scenic so thought that I would get some pictures to add to my landscape photographs. I also know that this lake had around seven swans which I could use for photographs. 

In addition, I am going to be taking photos of my friends snakes to use them as part of an event I am making for my constructions. I think this will make my products ore interesting and may appeal to my audience who may have children. These photographs will be taken in her home. 

Time management

In today's post, I am going to be planning my photo shoot. This involved the location, weather, model etc. I am at a stage now where I am able to start my planning for my constructions, and I have access to the locations I want for my images as well as the availability of my models. So by the end of this lesson, I plan to have finished some posts on my photoshoot organisation.

Character drawings

I am going to sketch a character aimed at my target audience to show a brief overview of their hobbies, interests and description. This will give me a visual idea of who I am going to appeal to and remind me throughout of who my target audience are. 
These also include the sorts of things I will be including in my contractions, as I am doing culture as my focus, it is easy for me to incorporate hobbies and interests of my target audience into my constructions. These character drawing are also presenting feedback from my audience survey, showing different areas in which were voted the best, and what they would like to see in the magazine. From my research and planning, I have found that it would be better to narrow my audience down to females aged 17-25 so it is the transition from teenage years to maybe motherhood. I feel that this age will allow me to include more distinctive content rather than making it complex. 

Time management

In todays lesson I am going to make a start on my character drawings for my potential target audience. I am going to draw a brief image of a person with words that would describe my audience and what interests/hobbies they have. In addition, I want to maybe start on my photoshoot organization as I now have some more clear ideas on where and when I will be taking them. I feel that I am making good progress with my media coursework and I am working at a steady pace to that I get done unto standard. 

Target audience Moodboard

I made this moldboard to represent my audience and show their interests. I have included things such as shops, places, music, family, makeup, theatre, festivals/events, social media and reading. I feel that these are the hobbies and interests of the target audience I am going for which is females from young to old. I chose this age as I feel my content covers a variety of interests along those ages so I can really put a specific age category onto my magazine . 

Audience moodboard from shantelle bowman

Time managment

In todays lesson I aim to complete more of the potential target audience section so that I can move onto photoshoot organization. I plan on doing my character drawings at home, but completing the mood board in todays lesson. I am also aiming to complete my institution research from last lesson as I had my work saved on the mac computer at college. 

Institution research

In order to  develop my ideas further, I wanted to look at how regional institutions compared to national institutions. From this I can see the differences between the two, but also look at how institutions can inspire me. I have created this Prezi to show regional distributors and the work that they do. I will then use this to have a look at my strengths and weaknesses of their work. I will also look at their production, what process they go through, where they have come from and how they distribute their magazine as well as other media platforms. 

Billboard inspiration

As my genre is very complex and includes many different areas, I am going to use different styles of billboards. billboards are used to advertise a company or product. They will use something that will catch your eye and draw you in. They can do this by using a catch line, image or colours. 

I think the first billboard is used for humor purposes to advertise a drink. I really like the bright colours which draw you in, making you want to read what it says. The text and images are big, so also very clear to see. This makes it understandable, especially if this billboard was on a motorway and you only had a few seconds to look at it. The colour scheme is very obvious, and it sucks in your head.  The second billboard is very simplistic and matches the style of the sporting company. I really like the effect they have gave the logo, as they have made it look more interesting rather than the usual tick. The companies slogan is also included which says 'just do it' which is well known nationwide as Nike is a very large and trending company for people of all ages. And lastly, this billboard is advertising a film which is the 'Purge'. they have got a very dull color scheme which implies the genre of the movie as it is a horror/thriller. Every convention used on this billboard is styled in a sinister way. It really gives that 'dark' vibe which is very effective in a way that it will appeal to people who are into that genre of movies. 

By looking at these inspiring billboards, I can see how all of the conventions link together to imply a certain effect on its target audience. I can use these ideas when I make my own billboard in order to continue with the same style and appeal to my target audience. I can do that through the colours I use, the images used, the text used and the other small conventions I may include. 

Time management

During todays lesson I aim to complete more pieces of work regarding my potential target audience. I feel that I need to get more of an idea on who my target audience actually are before I start constructing my work. I have made a survey aimed to my peers so that I can see what they are interested in and what they will or won't like about my ideas. To do this I will collect the results and then round them up and add them onto my blog.  I have also completed my WIX template research which has really helped me develop my ideas further for constructing my website. Today I also want to look into the WIX website in a bit more detail as I am wanting to start my contractions very soon. 

WIX template research

I started off by looking through the different styles of templates that WIX has to offer. The templates that I liked, I have screenshot them so that I can use them as inspiration for when I make my own website. I chose templates that would match my style, but would also look professional as a cultural genre. 

These templates have come from the photography section, as I am wanting to have quite a few images on the homepage and I feel that these are a good source of inspiration for me to follow. I feel like the layout of these templates will allow me to include all of the conventions of a website, and also look appealing to my target audience. The layout is simplistic, but the images give it that little bit more detail. I am going to use these as a starting point to see where I will place my different conventions and follow the same sort of design as they are. 

The only thing I would change about these templates would be to add a short introduction to the hyperlink on each image, this makes it more informative which is what I am going for while working on my genre which is culture. I have seen this sort of designs on websites such as VIBE.

This research has helped me develop my ideas for a website massivly as I didn't know what WIX was. By looking at the templates on this website, I am massively inspired to create a professional looking website in a style that matches my genre which is culture. 

Pitch Feedback

I posted my pitch onto a Facebook page I made so that my peers could give me feedback on hat they thought of it. I will use this feedback as part of my progression when it comes to making my constructions. I now know to develop more on specifying a distinctive audience. 

All of this feedback seems to be positive but I do have areas of improvement. From this feedback I now see that by picking culture as my genre it will allow me to include lots of different ideas such as places, events, fashion and beauty. From these comments I can also see the I need to be more clear about my target audience. But since making this pitch I have changed my target audience from males and females to just females. I done this as I feel it will be easier to create my magazine only having a specific target audience. I think it would be a lot harder to do if I had a larger audience. This has really helped me develop my ideas because I now think that I am on the right track and can start to think of ideas for starting my constructions knowing that I have a set genre and target audience. 

Time management

In this lesson I am going to look at website templates on WIX so that I can start to gather ideas on how I want to design in and what layout I will go for. In addition I want to gather my pitch feedback which I posted only Facebook so that I can start to do more work on my potential target audience. This will then allow me to get a good idea on who I am appealing to, therefore it will inspire me to put contents in my work which would appeal to that group. 

Color scheme ideas

By researching regional magazines in my area, I have found a way which will appeal to my audience and this is through the color scheme. The colours I have used have a meaning behind Sunderland which makes it that bit more regional. People in and around Sunderland are likely to know that these colours link in with the sunderland football team, this being a huge trending topic within Sunderland. then I have added a more dull color to balance out the brightness of the red. I feel like these colours are useful for my magazine as I am doing the culture of sunderland and I couldn't be using a completely different color as it wouldn't give that regional look. This has helped me develop more ideas on where I will apply the colours on my constructions. 

Audience survey

By creating this survey, it will give evidence of my potential target audience and what they want to see in my magazine, website and billboard. I will use this when it comes to making my constructions to show how I have developed my work from my audiences view. In my AS work I didn't really take notice of the surveys I created, so from that I now know that I should be aware of what my potential target audience want to see and not just go in with my own ideas. I have posted it onto a media pay I created on my Facebook so that people can complete the survey if they wish.




The results from this survey show... 

• Those who participated consisted of 85% female and 15% male.
• All aged between 17-21.
• 57% didn't actually read magazines but 43% who did, were interested in music, fashion and arts & crafts.
• The most popular distribution was a monthly buy.
• 71% opted to pay between £1 - £2.
• The biggest attractions to a magazine were articles, images and interviews.
• 85% said that they would be interested in buying a culture magazine.

From the results, I can identify what I should include in my magazine in order to appeal to my target audience. In addition, I also know what should include to appeal to people around my own age group. By the genre I am going for which is culture, I don't wait it to appeal to just girls my age, I also want to make it like a family magazine too as I am including events, festivals etc. 

Time managment

In todays lesson I am going to go through the checklist and try and complete more posts on my potential target audience. Then I will be able to think about starting my constructions. I feel like I am progressing well and can start to think about starting my draft articles. 

Potential target audience

I made this press to present my ideas for my target audience. It gives you an insight into who my creations will appeal to. My target audience will appeal to my products for a number of reasons. the contents I am including, the images I am taking and the interest they may have. Comparing this to my AS work, I can see that i have a more distinctive category maybe due to the fact I have chosen a genre which appeals to only a few people. By presenting this on particular software, I now know how to use Prezi and develop my skills on different formats. 

https://prezi.com/jukvz92ikx0y/edit/#20

Spark/North East Life - Magazine inspiration

My main inspiration from magazines 

For my A2 coursework I am taking my main magazine inspirations from two regional magazines. I feel like national magazines I have looked at don't really inspire me as much as my regional culture magazines have. These magazines will tend to have a more niche enthusiastic audience who have a passion for that subject. Rather than a national magazine which set large amounts of copies and people may just buy the magazine because it has a well known celebrity, local people will but the regional magazine because they are a community and want to see what is happening locally. 

Spark is a magazine based in Sunderland and created by students at the University of Sunderland. Spark brings a range of contents by working alongside other regional organizations such as Fashion North, Northern Lights, SR news and Sportsbyte. By working alongside these brands, Spark is able to appeal to a range of different audiences and keeps the community unto date with what is happening in and around Sunderland. This magazine is distributed to 88 schools across the region, across university campuses and around Sunderland. This allows many different people to get their copy. The magazine is produced every two month and focuses on a topic that is trending around that time. This includes events such as the Sunderland Air Show, proms, freshers etc.  This makes it easy to appeal to a variety of ages. It features local news, local music, interviews with local artists, reviews and events that are going on in and around Sunderland. As well as having a magazine, it also has a website and radio show. This makes it easier to access as it has different platforms, so if your not into reading you might listen to the radio show, or if you like to see images etc, you might go on the website or get the magazine. 

Here I have taken a front cover, double page spread and contents page from the latest edition of Spark magazine. I really like the design and style of this particular issue as it looks very simplistic and easy to read. I really like the layout because it looks organized and in place. It isn't overpowered with text or images, it has got an easy simple design. I am going to use this source as part of my main inspiration when I start to make my conventions. I feel like it will really help me get an idea on what layout I use and also the information included as I am also creating a magazine based on Sunderland. 

My other inspiration is also a regional magazine in the North East. North East Life is a regional magazine that celebrates the finer things in life. Published by Archant Life, Britain's biggest publisher of regional magazines, North East Life champions all that is best about the region. People, places, heritage, landscape and quality of life all feature prominently, along with platform sections covering Property, Food and Wine, Interiors, Fashion and a comprehensive What's On guide. Beautiful design and fabulous photography make North East Life essential reading each month. Its competitive cover price has assisted North East Life to become the fastest-growing and biggest-selling magazine in the region. LIFE magazines appeal to people with a passion for their region and who have high disposable incomes. In the North of England Archant Life also publishes the prestigious and market-leading titles Yorkshire Life, Cheshire Life, Lancashire Life and Derbyshire Life, all established for more than 60 years. So there are obvious differences between my two main inspirations but I want to use them both in order to make my own magazine a mix of both. The North East Life is a more old fashioned classic magazine with more established heritage contents. The main attraction to me from this magazine are the images. 

 

The target audience of this magazine is likely to be the older generation, just because of the heritage it includes. Compared to the Spark magazine which is created and edited by local students in Sunderland. Spark will tend to have a target audience of mainly younger adults but will also appeal to the older generation. 

This researched has helped me develop more ideas as it has opened up two different  styles. One which is an established look, and another which is more modern created by University students. I am going to take my photographic inspiration from the North East Life magazine, but then use Spark magazine as my inspiration for contents, but also use their images as my inspiration. I want a mix of both. Looking back at my AS work, I didn't have a set of inspirations, I just took ideas from lots o different areas but didn't really note them down, where as now, I can say that I have my main inspirations which I will use when I do my construction work. 


In addition, I had a magazine from a supermarket near me. The style of the content page really inspired me and would fit with my genre and target audience. By including this as an inspiration, I can look back on it when I make my constructions so that I can use some ideas from it.  I took this photo, and I feel like it will be really useful to me and the magazine also matched with my genre which is culture. However, this magazine has a halloween theme so I won't be using the sorts of inspiration. 

Time management

In todays lesson I aimed to complete all of my deconstructions which I managed to do. I finished the website deconstructions which I started last lesson.

I also started to make a press on my potential target audience, so I have done a little research into that, and I aim to complete that press next lesson. In the meantime, at home I am going to go through my A2 checklist and see what I can do to progress and complete. 
At the minute, I am happy with how far I am going in terms of getting work completed. I do have some areas that I need to improve on my blogs, but I will check that as I go on and say how I have developed my skills and work.