Brief 3:
There is a gap in the market for real life magazines that are targeted for 16-25 year olds, they are mostly aimed at middle aged women. Gender, sexuality and age could be easily represented and could be used to break conventions. I could look into playing with gender stereotypes and breaking conventions, in a similar way to Vogue's Harry Styles cover.
Lifestyle magazines such as That's Life! are outdated and exaggerated, I would want to be more realistic and showcase an intersectional and youthful view on life, catering to all sexualities and genders. Images could be taken in a range of locations and link to different stories regarding current affairs, personal stories, environment and relevant themes such as gender expression and personal experiences with identity. I could do relevant stories such as one on the current obsession with true crime, and a themed photoshoot to go with it.
I would like to challenge gender norms and present more feminine men and masculine women, in both subtle and then more outlandish ways. This could link to stories to do with modern gender identity and representation, and how we are progressing as a society with that. I could explore androgyny and the growing number of young people who feel disconnected with their assigned gender, and the rising acceptance of they/them pronouns. People are becoming more open to genderless clothing, so I would love to explore that.
I think that this works well for youthful audiences, as they are generally more progressive and fluid with their gender expression and sexuality - saying this I wouldn't want the magazine to be purely aimed towards the LGBTQ+ community, I think that could be divisive.
The androgynous glam rock ideas of the 70s and 80s, headlined by people like David Bowie and Motley Crue, are coming back into the spotlight in an exciting way. Media personalities such as Tripp Kilpatrick and Harry Styles play into their femininity and draw from icons of the past.
The magazine would link to a website, both having the same branding, I would try to stay clear of the colour red as I think it is overused. The website would include articles and pictures to go with them, and must have a short video. I could do a short documentary-style intro such as Vogue's 73 questions, or the Wired autocomplete survey etc.
Magazines such as Pride and Kerrang cater more towards a younger audience, so I may draw inspiration from there when thinking about my target audience.
Brief 4:
The requirement for brief 4 is that we use a love song, so there is no gap in the market - especially targeting 16-25 year olds. I think the best way to go about this brief would be to choose an older song so that there is no pre-existing media with it, such as something by Etta James. Due to the fact that the video has to be in a performance/narrative style I would try to use creative shots and mise en scene in order to make it more unique and less cliché. A slow love song such as A Sunday Kind Of Love or At Last by Etta James could be used, and the video could have scenes of juxtaposition with the lyrics where the couple are singing happy lyrics, but the atmosphere and actions in the video suggest the opposite.
I would use a young couple, as to represent the target audience. I could also use a homosexual couple, which would represent different sexualities and go against conventions. This choice would be able to be used to amplify the hardships of a relationship as, in general, they face more struggles than heterosexual couples. However, using a straight couple would enable me to vary my gender representation in the video. It could be difficult to get any age representation in the video as the couple would be the same age, but I could perhaps feature a parent or sibling as part of the narrative
