Afiqah's Media Studies blog
2020/2021 (AS)
Research & Planning
Magazine Genre
For the component 1, foundation portfolio, I have to choose from two set briefs of media product that I will be producing which is either a film opening or a magazine. I chose magazine production as for my component 1, foundation portfolio. The main reason why I chose magazine production for my Component 1, is because I found it interesting to create my own magazine with my own magazine name which is the masthead as well as the tagline or slogan. Also honestly, I found it much doable to create a magazine production compared to creating an opening film task.
Before I start with my research analysis, I am going to figure out my magazine theme or genre as well as my target audience, to find out who they are, what their interest are and how to make my product appealing to them that would likely to read my magazine and lastly the conventions that I have used during the process of my magazine production.
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The genre that I will be choosing is an accessories or jewelries magazine. I want my magazine to be something that I know more about and I love the most which is why I chose jewelry magazine for my magazine production. Also jewelry magazine is a magazine that is not much in the market industry especially in my country here in Brunei. There is not much of fashion magazine from a local publisher.
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Target Audience
As I did my research, the age group that would most likely to buy jewelry magazine are females, age between 25 and 34 with high and middle range of level income.
However, the target audience for my magazine is younger people within the age range of 16 to 21. I am going to generalize the topics within the magazine in order for it to be relevant to people of different racial and religious backgrounds. Females are mostly attracted to read and buy my magazine because they are the one that are more interested in jewelry and the trends fashion.
The articles within my magazine will have mainly images of a young model and within the audience’s age and brief interviews, this is because young people nowadays may just glance at the pages instead of reading paragraphs about the latest trends jewelry fashion which is why I will include at least several paragraphs.
Magazine Research Analysis
Before I do my magazine planning , I start off by doing research analysis of my magazine of different types of accessories magazines that I will be looking on, and this is to give me an inspiration so that it will be easier for me to do my magazine layout. For my magazine research analysis, I am going to do the research on the internet as I don’t have any accessories theme magazine.
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House Style
Each magazine has a certain style, layout, and structure. The position, color and font of the masthead, logo, cover lines and main image all contribute to the style of the magazine, which is the house style. House style is used by almost every magazine and this is to give each magazine an individual look and flair but it is appealing and new to the audience. A House style is used so the audiences become familiar with the house style of the magazine and are able to identify the original style of a magazine. Below are some example of the house style of a jewelry magazine:
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Jewelry Affaire is very effective because it uses the same bold and elegant style of font and this is because they want to keep the consistency throughout the magazine. The color scheme of the font also attract the potential audiences and it changes over time depending on the color of the main image of the cover which is the accessories used for the page and also matches with the other cover lines and to match it with the font.
In the examples of the jewelry affaire covers provided, the type shots used are mostly close up shot of the product (accessories) medium and long shot this is because to show more of the details of the accessories. The accessories used for the front covers are usually unique with a bright and pop up colors to make it stand out to their potential audiences. This has been done in all the magazines that they produce, which again keeps the consistency of their magazines. The layout is quite similar in all Jewelry Affaire magazines. The masthead does not go on the image of the accessory and the jewelry image is most of the time placed right in the middle and this makes it clearer that the image of the jewelry is the most important on the magazine. Also the image in the middle makes it eye catching for the target audiences. This magazine would be likely to be appealing to middle age women age 20 to 35.
ACCESSORIES magazine is another jewelry type of magazine but the obvious difference is that ACCESSORIES magazine uses a model for their cover, same thing goes for ACCESSORIES magazine, they also have used the same type of font and layout which to keep consistency of the magazine. Also the color scheme changes depending on what the model is wearing. Most of the shot taken is a mid-shot of the model this is because the model is wearing accessories on them and the jewelry is the main attraction of the cover, and not just the model.
Just like the Jewelry Affaire magazine, the masthead does not really goes on the main image which is the model. The models are wearing big with unique designs of accessories and a bright and bold colors and again this is to grab their potential audiences.
Magazine Research #1
Cover Page
Masthead
Cover Lines
Tagline
Featured Article
Main Image
Barcode, Date line & Price
The main purpose of the front cover is to draw and attract the audiences in closer. The audience may see the magazine and want to take a closer look depending on how well the front cover has achieved its conventions. The model, color, and font are all things that will catch the audience’s eyes; the text and what the magazine includes, is what persuades the audience to then open the magazine to read it. So to summarize, the front cover is extremely important, as it is the main selling point to get the audience to purchase it.
The conventions of a front cover are the masthead, cover lines, taglines, and buzzwords which will consists of the words ‘Free’ and ‘Exclusive’ which focuses on showing the audience that they will be seeing something special and exclusives which influences them to purchase the magazine.
For my first magazine cover research is a magazine called Jewelry Affaire. On each issue of Jewelry Affaire offers 144 pages of artistic necklaces, cuffs, earrings, bracelets, and more. It is a American jewelry magazine in USA from the publisher of Somerset Studio and Belle Armoire Jewelry. The first issue was in Aug 1997, edited by Marne Ryan and published by The Stampington Company. Jewelry Affaire magazine has a prestigious print value, the magazine is quality and this explain the high price tag of $14.99.
The reason why I chose magazine this as my first magazine research is because, first I love how simple and yet still looks elegant and I love how the color scheme matches the font with the main image. Also the necklace has been place on the center of the cover which will grab audience’s attention.
Masthead
The masthead refers to the name of the magazine and is usually displayed on the top of the magazine. The name of the magazine identifies what the magazine is about. The magazine covers about types of jewelries and the new trends fashion accessories, tips and advices on how to style it . The color font of the masthead is gold and matches with the other color connotations. The gold color gives an extravagance or wealth touch to the magazine. The gold also match with the flowers inside the necklace . Gold also gives a warmth mood . The masthead ‘Jewelry Affaire’ and the word Jewelry is in bold font so that it stands out more and so the genre of the magazine is obvious to the target audience before reading it. The used of font is slightly different, with ,one thicker and the ‘Affaire’ is thinner but both has a same style which is an elegant and stylish style to match with the genre.
Tagline
A tagline are usually situated near the masthead. They are catchy phrases and their purpose is to give a bit of an in site on what the magazine is about. The tagline ‘make it easy, make it extraordinary’ draws audience attention about how easy it is to style their accessories but with an extraordinary results and this gives a teaser to the audience as it draws them in to wanting to read further.
Cover Lines
The cover lines are usually the summarized version of the articles inside the magazine. Different colored fonts are used to make it more interesting , for example from this cover , gold for the headline and black for the descriptions below The type of font is chic and elegant for the headline of the cover lines and a classic type of font for the descriptions. These cover lines are used to attract the audience and they are divided but most of them are on the right hand side as it Is where most people first look at.
Main Cover Line
The main cover line I’m guessing is the ‘Moroccan Vibes’ which is the only featured cover line on the left hand side of the page and because the font are slightly bigger than the rest of the cover lines and so it stands out more. However the used of font type and color are the same.
Main Image
The main image is a long shot of a necklace and a close up on the triangle with flowers inside it and this is to focus more on the triangle to show the detail of the necklace. This unique looking necklace is connecting with one of the cover line on the cover which is the ‘ 120+ Unique Pieces’ also this can get audience’s attention . Just by looking at the main image could tell the audiences that it is clearly a jewelry magazine. The white background makes the jewelry stands out more. The flowers below the necklace matches with flowers inside the necklace. It also gives a pure and feminists touch. The main image is a necklace that looks like handmade and this can attract audiences that are into jewelry making. The necklace is not using a silver or chain but instead using a rope so it could mean to a environmental friendly of making a jewelry which could draws audiences in as it is a good and positive thing to do and it can be seen as unique.
Barcode, Price Line, Date Line
The barcode is one of the necessary requirements of a magazine and usually covers the essential details about the magazine such as the date or the price. The barcode is placed on the bottom right corner of the magazine and does not follow the color connotations as it is not relevant to anything in the magazine.
Content Page
The content page of a magazine also has codes and conventions such as the title, the biggest text on the contents page of a magazine is the main ‘Contents’ title. There is always a main image on the page relating to the feature article and it can either be big or smaller. Magazine Contents page are set categories depending on the type of articles contained in the magazine. The sub headings that are usually in most magazines:
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On The Cover
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In Every Issues
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Features
However some sub headings are specific to the magazine, for example jewelry magazine may contain headings about their style articles. Usually the size of the sub headings is 14 pt. The articles are set into a sequence order so its easier for the reader to find what they want to read. Also there is a sentence or a few words for each article so that the reader can get a feel of what the article contain about.
Conventionally, the background of a magazine cover should be white, so that the text is clear and easy to read. The color scheme is always simple and does not contain to many colors, this is so that the page is easy on the eye and colors are not to distracting from the contents of the page. Lastly, the page numbers, they are usually place on the left of the sub headings and are usually bigger size and bold font.
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Other things which can also be included on the contents page are:
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Picture of front cover
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Website address
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Contact details
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Credits for the cover photo
Subheadings
Title
Main Image
Page number
Extra descriptions
For the content page, I want it to look simple which is why I chose this content page for my research analysis. This magazine content page does not have their masthead on the content page, instead a title ‘Content’ which is the biggest text on top of the page with a capital letter with an elegant and chic type of font to match with the genre of the magazine. The articles are set into a sequential order so its easier for audiences to read with page number on the left side of the extra descriptions.
The background is white with not much color scheme going on. The main image which is a set of jewelry and it relate with the feature articles. There are also photo shopped of gems on the corner top of the page and on the bottom and this is probably because to make the content page not too bare as the there is not much color scheme that can lost audience’s interest in reading it.
Double Page Spread
Captions
Large Image
Headline
Captions
Large Image
Page number & Masthead of magazine
This is the double page spread jewelry magazine that I decided to choose for my research analysis, on this double page spread, the images on both pages are large and it takes up the whole page. The Mise-en-scene or the setting is about two things that are expensive on earth which are cheese and diamond carats and these two are put together, the jewelries are put on top of a cheese instead of a table which challenging the convention and this can draws their target audiences more as it is unique and audience will get the idea of luxuriousness by looking at the image alone.
The headline ‘Cheese & Carats’ , are on top of the article and it is in capital letters which can grabs audience’s attention and it is bold with an elegant and classic style of font to match with the image. The background is white (including the cheese) so that all of the jewelries stand out. The colors of the jewelries also different on both pages, the blue diamonds are on the right hand sided and this could mean that it is from other designers. The captions are next to the jewelries and it does not goes on the jewelries. There are two columns of article found in this page and the color of the article are all black because of the light background so that it can be seen easily by audience. The page number can be seen below with the masthead of the magazine.
Magazine Research #2
Cover Page
For my second jewelry magazine cover research, it is a different brand of jewelry magazine, called ACCESSORIES. The reason why I chose this magazine cover because it uses a model wearing the jewelry and it is different from the Jewelry Affaire magazine.
ACCESSORIES magazine is a jewelry magazine from New York. ACCESSORIES Magazine has published women's fashion accessories news for more than 100 years and it is by far the most fast selling jewelry magazine in New York and this is because of the quality picture used and the conventions used in this cover that has successfully grabs their target audiences attention.
The masthead ACCESSORIES is on top of the page with a capital letter and a bold font. The masthead is the first thing audience looks at and ACCESSORIES has used quite a successful masthead, the font style is a typical font style used in fashion magazines and this can connote confidence of the model’s expression.
The color (pale purple) could also relate to its targeted audience which are women age between 21 to 35. The color also match with the other color connotations and kind of matches with the model’s clothing.
There are no taglines to be seen in this magazine cover. The dateline and price line are place below the masthead with the same color connotation. The main or featured article is the ‘ 2016 Merchants Hall of Fame’ because it has a different color connotation and it is the biggest article on the cover page.
The model is wearing a casual clothing and does not stands out because the main highlight of the image is the jewelry. Conventionally the models are women and this is because of their target audiences The model has a slight makeup on and her expression is minimal and so that audience could pay attention the accessories that the model is wearing more. The background is conventionally white, but however, in this cover, the background has a pattern but with a pale green color so that it does not stands out more than the jewelry. The jewelry the model is wearing has a bold and bright color with a unique design to grab audience’s attention. The barcode cannot be seen also and most of the cover lines are on the left side of the cover because it where audience looks at first.
Content Page
For my second content page research has used a bigger jewelry that are photo shopped and this could be because they want their audiences to see the details of the jewelries and next to it are the page numbers. The images are all related to the contents on the right side of the page. The background color is white to make sure the jewelries stands out more. There is not much of color scheme in this page and all of the contents headlines are the same color connotations which is black. However the headline or the title ‘Contents’ is not big like normal content page has . The subheading, however has a different color connotations(red) and matches with bold line on the title ‘Contents’.
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Other than that I had also done research on what type of font I will be using, the color scheme for my magazine cover, double spread page (DSP) and my content page.
Double Page Spread
For the second research of my double page spread has a very unique layout and the images are photo shopped. The headline ‘Bridal Jewelry’ which is the biggest text on the page and it helps audiences to know what the article is about as soon as they see the headline. “Marriages are made in heaven” are the quotes that are used as the headline from interviews. The quotes used are usually something that are controversial and the quotes in this article is a belief from different culture and religion.
The articles are in columns so that it is easier for readers to read and the columns did not goes on or touch the photo shopped jewelries. The background of the page is white to make the jewelries stands out. Drop cap which is the first letter of the article and is usually has a different type of font and the size is bigger than the rest articles. The color scheme is quite simple with only black font and grey bold lines to separate the articles neatly. At the bottom right hand side of the page is the name of the designer.
Fonts
Based from my magazine research analysis, most of the magazines used a bold and big masthead in order to attract their target audience, with an elegant and sophisticated style of font used.
The Jewelry Affaire has a mixture of font’s size and style, this is to reinforce the meaning of the title. The ‘Jewelry’ has a bold capitalized font and audience would clearly know what the magazine is about but however ‘Affaire’ has a slim and sophisticated style of font and this is to match with the genre. I love the style of fonts in this cover .
For the ACCESSORIES masthead, it has a bold and slim in size and it also has that typical fashion style of font. The masthead is in a capitalized font, and this is to draws audience more as it is the first thing the audience looks at.
Here are some samples of fonts from the Adobe InDesign app, and that I had chosen as my favorite. These are the potential fonts that I will be using for my masthead. I will be choosing Bodoni MT regular and this is because the style almost matches with the fonts that I did on my research analysis and also it fits with the theme I am going with which is an elegant and classy. I like the fact that it has that fashionable style that is common in fashion magazines.
Color Scheme
Since my theme is more to an elegant and classy, the only color that I could think of is a gold color. Another reason why I chose gold as my color code for my magazine is because it has that warm tone effect which matches with my accessories. The green color is to give the magazine color a bit of a bright color.
Magazine Planning
After I have done with my magazine research analysis, I went ahead and plan my magazine planning by doing the layout of my magazine cover, double page spread and content page which I will be drawing or sketching it on a A4 paper so that it will be easier for me to edit my magazine and as my pre-production magazine but before that I have to plan out about what I should name my magazine which is my masthead and all of the conventions I used in my magazine cover. Also what article I should put on my double spread page and deciding the contents for my content page.
This magazine research and planning includes, my photo shoot planning which includes the model descriptions, the mise-en-scene or setting of the shooting, the props or clothing that I will be using for the photo shoot and the technologies that I used to take pictures for my magazine production.
Masthead
For my magazine masthead I have to decide on what my masthead should be called and I have used businessnamegenerator.com to give me name ideas for my masthead. It is a website to help businesses in generating brands name. It is very efficient as I only need to type in key word in the ‘Generate’ box and by clicking generate, it gives multiple of name ideas.
I want my masthead to be something that is not too long nor to short and of course it must be as catchy as possible and also fits with the genre of my magazine which is elegant and classic. Also it matches with my target audience which are young females and it should be something that is not too complicated to understand .I also come up with my own ideas for my masthead name and below are the potential names for my masthead:
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Jewelrify
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Jewels
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Jewelz
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For my masthead, I have chosen these three as my top three masthead names that I will be choosing for my magazine cover. Jewelrify could be a potential magazine name as it is quite catchy and would be appealing to young people, ‘Jewelrify’ is a combination from the word Jewelry and Diversify and this means how people can have different or diversifies on the way they are styling their accessories and this can make my target audience relate to the masthead but however I believe that some of the audience could not get what the masthead means.
‘Jewels’ is another potential name for my masthead , ‘Jewels’ is the short slang from the word ‘Jewelries’ and this could be a good name as it is quite clear and my audience could get what the masthead means. Another potential name for my masthead is ‘Jewelz’ which is same as ‘Jewels’ but with a Z and it represent the Gen Z which is the generation that was born between 1996-2010 which are mostly my target audience.
After having discussions with my tutors and also my friends, most of them had chosen ‘Jewels’ for my magazine masthead and most of them are my friends and I think this is because young people nowadays are more into simplicity and straight forward and they also find it more understandable than the rest of the names that I had showed them.
My personal favorite name was ‘Jewelrify’ as it could relate to some people about how jewelry can be style with a diversify style of their own style. Yet they saw it too be complicated to understand and they thought that the word ‘ify’ could have a multiples of meaning which is why they chose ‘Jewels’.
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Magazine Layout
Pre-Production Magazine Cover
After I have done with my magazine research analysis, I went ahead and plan my magazine planning by doing the layout of my magazine cover, double page spread and content page which I will be drawing or sketching it on a A4 paper so that it will be easier for me to edit my magazine and as my pre-production magazine.
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Here are my magazine layout planning and I have decided to planned out two magazine layout for my magazine cover and the reason why I have decided to do this, it’s because I want to see which layout would look good for my magazine cover. The first layout is the one with a model and the second layout is the one with the necklace. I also personally am not sure yet if I will be choosing my magazine cover’s image to be using a model or I will just use an image of jewelry itself.
Feature article- I will be placing the feature article under the masthead so it is the first article the audience reads
Cover lines- All of the cover lines are mostly going to be on the left side of the cover and has the same color connotation with the masthead.
Masthead & Tagline - like a conventional magazine cover I will design my magazine with the masthead at the top of the page in order to catch audience’s eyes as well as my tagline below the masthead
Pug - a pug are effective at attracting my target audience by making the magazine more intriguing and I will be adding buzzword such as’ free’
Barcode- I will be placing the barcode on the bottom left corner side
For the featured article (1) is an interview session with a teenage girl and her daily wear jewelries. The (2) strip title is a project or a step by step on how to make an easy to wear accessories and on top of it is a picture of the finish product. (3) is a trending look ideas to follow. Lastly the (4) strip title is a jewelries ideas for different types of events or occasions. The barcode is going to be on the bottom right hand side of the magazine and both price and issue date is on top of the cover.
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Pre-Production Content Page
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Sub headings- it is going to be on top of each different category of articles
Extra descriptions on what the articles is about and next to it are page numbers
Page numbers- the page numbers are all going to be next to the images with big and bold font
Headline- The title ‘Content’ which is the biggest font on top of the page
Images- all of the images will be on the right side of the page and all are related to the contents
Pictures of front cover are usually placed on the bottom of the page with credits
Page numbers- are some more conventions of a DSP that I will be putting on the bottom corner side of the page
Main Images- the main image will be on top of the page and on the left side as it is the first thing audience looks at
Headline- headline or the title will be below the main image so audience will know what the article is about
Article- a little bit of article will be under the main image
Images- More images I will be putting on the page because my target audience are young people and they prefer more pictures then long articles
Article- an article about Q&A with the model that will be on this page
For the content page, I want it to look simple but also elegant. The background of a content page is normally white but mine will be a beige color. On top of the page is the title ‘Content’ and then the strip titles with their page number on the side of each of the contents and all of my contents will be placed on the left side of the page and all of the images on the right side of the page. All of the contents are related to the genre and article Below are the contents that will be on the page:
Basic
-5-How to get started
-8- Choose your own style
Looks & Trends
-1- Different types of astonishing pearls accessories for daily wear plus an interview session
-10- Sleek and chic trends look ideas to follow!
Projects & Ideas
-18- Make your own a pair of an elegant black and silver clay earring made up of coins!
-20- Sculpt your own chain link bracelets
Fit for occasions
-32- New Year glamour
-41- Wedding collections
However these are just my planning for my layout of my magazine and some part of the layout could change when I start to edit my magazine. The layout would have a slight different to my magazine final product layout later on.
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Pre-Production Double Spread Page
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This is the final look of my pre-production double page spread layout. For this page is going to be an interview session with model, which is the featured article. On the first page of the double page spread is a picture from a different angle of the accessories that the model is wearing and a bit of a article below the main image, I will be using a lot of pictures on both pages because of my target audience which are young females and they would not like too many articles and prefer more images. The reason why I put the main image on top of the left side of the page is because it is the first thing a person looks at.
On the second page is a full interview of the model on who inspired her looks and how she match her looks with different types of outfits for different types of accessories. On the second page I will also be putting the model’s picture on wearing the jewelries same as the cover but of course different angles. The model or the person that I will be interviewing is a young teenage female which are the right age range as my target audience. The interview will be a Q&A about her interest in accessories and fashions and sharing her tips and advices on styling accessories. This could appeal to my target audience as they found it relatable and maybe helpful.
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Photoshoots Planning
Photo shoots Planning
Before I do my shooting, I did some research more about different types of camera angles on how to take a picture of the jewelries and how models poses wearing accessories on them.
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Camera shots and angles
Most of the camera angle that they are using is a close up shot and this is to show the details of the jewelry that would attract audience and draws in to read the magazine.
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Pinterest.com
Model Poses
These are the examples of model poses that I researched that could help my model as she doesn’t have any modeling experience and she is quite awkward with the poses.
Pinterest.com
Mise-en-scene
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PTES (the school)
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At the living room (inside house)
Props
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Earrings
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Necklaces
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Bracelets
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Table
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Chair
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Mirror
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Clothing blouse
Equipment used
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Camera Canon G7
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Light box (with 2 table lamp)
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Mobile phone flashlight
Model description
Model is my cousin,Shasha Shahirah, she is 18 years old which is around the age range of my target audience and another reason why i chose her as my model is because she is quite good in facial expressions when taking picture and she also loves wearing jewelries and the fashion jewelry trends, which is why I did an interview Q and A with her and asking about her history about her interest in jewelries .Also I’m more comfortable doing an interview with her as she is the only person I’m very close with.
