Audience Research

When making a video it is extremely important that the content is geared towards the audience as these are the people who are consuming the product. Everything from the music track right down to the texts used in the visuals is thought through in order to be commensurate with the target audience. For my video I believe the best possible way of gathering information about my target audience is to create a questionnaire  This way I can have a look into what typical member of the public is going to be interested in my product and what they would like to see form the product when being made. I will aim to create a list of open ended and closed questions on a sheet of paper before handing to my local fish shop that sees many customers every day that are also marine hobbiests. This way the obvious target audience is pin pointed as oppose to handing the list of questions to a random member of the public, most likely having very small knowledge of the subject.

The introduction and questions will appear like this:

My name is Henry Cramer-Todd and am a marine aquatic hobbiest. For a school project I am creating an informative video about the reef tanks in the London Sea Life Aquarium. I am also recreating the front cover of the ‘Marine Habitat’magazine to feature my video as a free gift. I would greatly appreciate your help and advice on my project by answering the following questions.

1: What is your age?

2: Are you male or female?

3: In the video would you prefer there to be an interview with the supervisor about the tanks being explained or a voice over?

4: How long would you expect a video of this type to be?

5: What type of music track would be best fitting for a video of this genre?

6: Would you prefer the video to have clips of the whole of the London Sea Life Aquarium or just the reef tanks?

7: Would you be interested in seeing the tanks from a behind the scenes aspect and see the equipment used etc?

7: How important is it to have special effects to show the information being explained?

8: What colours would you expect the magazine cover to have when featuring  the video as free gift?

With this information I can gain an idea of who my target audience is and what they are after. Especially regarding the content of the video. for example i will know what type of music the audience would typically like to hear in this type of video which may be completely different to my perception of the idea music.

In total I had 15 replies to the questionnaire which I am very happy about as this gives a very even amount of people to justify my decisions by.

Magazine Layout Research

One of the elements in my brief is to design the front cover of the Marine Habitat magazine. In order to do this it is important to analyse common conventions in a magazine layout. For this I have decided to look a the existing layout of the magazine as well as other layouts that are used. I have purchased a copy of the Marine Habitat magazine however it is important to look at the common conventions of magazine layouts first.


Conventions of Magazine Layout
Masthead - The magazine's title. Usually displayed in the top left corner
Price - Magazine Cost
Date - Weekly: usually from Saturday to Friday. Monthly: a month ahead
Issue Number - A tally of magazines
Barcode - Read electronically and decoded into usable information
Teaser - One word/phrase acts as an attention grabber
Main Feature: Headline - A phase that may summarise the main point of the main feature. in large print, different style, bold colours in order to catch the attention of the reader.
Subtitle - Smaller headline that may summarise the feature.
Smaller Feature - Features included in the magazine.
Images - Size: CU to med CU. Ranges from one main image to x amount featuring one main image and smaller images. helps make the page look more interesting. it can add understanding of a story and/or entice someone to read the magazine.
Font - Style and size of type face.
Colour  - Specific/stylistic/thematic types,
Graphics - Graphical shapes to highlight feature(s)
Offers/adverts Blurb - Banner-style shape featuring free products/promotions.
Left Third - The main story title
Sell Line - The tag line or brand identity
Splash - A graphic which looks like the image has been splashed onto the page.
Credit - Credit to the photographer
Kicker - A title which draws the reader in
Teller - A phrase which explains the kicker
Skyline - A headline above the masthead
Flash - A graphic which makes the image look like it is flashing onto the page
Graphology - The art of using graphics/font/positioning
Anchorage - Explains the pictures
Vocabulary - The writing on the page that needs to be relevant
Screamers - Headlines that would be shouted if spoken out loud

Marine Habitats magazine (Issue 11, sep/oct)

Analysing the conventions of a magazine layout:

Masthead:' Marine Habitat' Displayed in the middle at the top of the page in the conventional font set by the comapny-Blocked with curved outlines.

Price:£3.99,sisplayed in the top left (vertically)

Date:'Sep/Oct 2012' displayed in the top left (vertically)

Issue number:11 Displayed in the top left corner (vertically)

Barcode-Bottom right corner using the traditional black against white, vertically placed, displaying the 'fush junkies' logo.

Teaser- 'Fish Rooms' in white and pink in large text to the 'left third'

Main Feature- 'the deep aquarium review'-this is inthe ledt third and grabs our attention because of its size and colour of white and deep pink.

Smaller Feature-This is displyed again in the white and pink font in the footer of the page under the words 'also included in this issue'

Images- A large rabbit fish image displayed in the centre of the page- this is the main focus.

4 small imaged of a coral angel,kenya tree, zoanthid and clown tang as thumbnails under a Slogan- 'ultimate species guide'-a regular feature feature in this magazine.

'Hobbiest profile' occupies the bottom quarter of the issue with 1 large image of a brain coral and 3 smaller, in a line of various other corals such as a torch and duncan coral. these are all surrounded by a thin white boarder which makes them pop out.

Colour-The main focus of the magazine is in a deep blue/black which is the bokeh of the large photo cover the front. This is contrasted by the bright yellow of the foxface fish. The other images add bright luminous colour.

Graphics-Pictures for articles are blocked with the texts conventionally pink/white.

Offers-At the header there is advertising for money off and a competition to from NT Labs ( a wel known hobbiest brand)

Skyline-'Discover & master saltwater fishkeeping'-Thier slogan.

Screamers-the three sub headlines in the left third. 'Rabbit fishes, The Deep Aquarium Review and 'Fish Rooms- A Room for the Obsessed'. 

The large success of the marine Habbitats magazine cover is the bright colours used and the contrasts they create with whites pinks blacks blues and yellows against each other. I think it is important to consider these common conventions when designing mine. They also used an out of focus section on the sides to allow the text to be readable, leaving the main picture to be seen clearly between. If the background is detailed it will look too busy and hard to read.

Now I have analysed some existing magazines I am going to look into how to create a magazine cover. From looking on the internet I have found a website that shows exactly how to create a cover. The website is called www.layersmagazine.com and holds a host of tutorials on this kind of thing. 

As the DVD will be put into the front cover of the magazine it needs to be extremely thin in order to be keep the shape of the original paper profile. This DVD sleeve is a perfect choice as it is thin and when made out of card is also strong enough to protect the DVD from getting scratched and damaged.

Marine Species Database

When identifying the species in the tank I will need to be able to find out further information about each. I have found an Aquatic species database with a large amount of technical information regarding each species.This is where I will be getting the majority of my species information from for the video. There is 3 categories including fish, invert and coral-perfect for what I need. This search engine is shown below: