A 5, 6, 7, 8... : The Start Of Something New

        So here it is the moment every AICE Media Studies student has been waiting for: the much anticipated final portfolio project. Months ago I was told I had to decide if I would rather make a two minute film opening or a sample magazine, containing a cover page, table of contents, and a two page spread. Despite being a theatre kid for years where a film opening would seem like a much better fit for me, I decided to go the magazine route. The reason I chose the magazine is because I thought it would be easier for me to work alone on, since I'm very busy I did not want to hinder my group in anyway. Also, I truly believe I will be able to demonstrate the skills I've learned in this class more effectively with the magazine instead of the film opening. Plus I love to write, and I can do that in a print form of media.

    Now that I decided on my medium, I had to chose a genre and theme for the magazine. My initial idea was a fashion magazine like Glamour or Vogue, but I found that a little too cliché, and very basic overall. My next idea was a world event magazine like Time or National Geographic, which I found fitting since I'm in Model United Nations at my school. I decided against it because I wanted my magazine to be a little more fun for the graders to read, as well as for me to make. What I decided to do was make a dance magazine, since I have been in dance for nearly thirteen years of my seventeen year old life. There is so much you can do with a dance magazine, from tips on technique, list of the best dance songs/ costumes/ and stage makeup, interviews with chorographers , dance-based debates, the possibilities were truly endless. Plus dance has gained enormous popularity over the years. TV shows like Dance Moms, Abby Lee's Ultimate Dance Competition, Shake it Up, Dancing With the Stars, and So You Think You Think Can Dance? all have promoted an increase interest in dance. Movies like Step Up, Black Swan, and Footloose have also lead to a bigger dance community following. According to the market research done by ibisworld, dance employs over 50,000 people and there are over 8,000 institutes and studios for dance in 2015 and this popularity is projected to continue to grow.

    So now what I needed to do was come up with a title for my magazine. Many dance magazines have very simplistic titles such as, Pointe, Dance Magazine, and Dance Studio Magazine. The target audience, especially of Dance Magazine, appears to be college students/ young adults in their mid to late 20s. They seem to either be dance majors or professional dancers going out for auditions, this magazine being very sophisticated looking, and the articles are more serious and important dance topics. What I plan to do with my magazine is make the range appeal to a younger audience, as well as this college age group. To execute this I would add articles in the forms of lists, controversial dance debates, as well as important dance articles like Dance Magazine includes. Another way I plan to attract this younger audience (by younger I mean tweens and teenagers, not like seven year olds) I plan to use a title that is not so simplistic and to the point, I wanted to use a pun or a play on words for my title, but could not think of one until I heard "Dancing Through Life" from the Broadway musical Wicked, and I thought what could possibly be a better title for my magazine, and thus Dancing Through Life was born.

    At the moment that is all I have on my magazine, but I am excited to continue working on this process and furthering my knowledge on this topic. Until next blog.
-Taylor Barton

Ballet, Ballerina, Dance, Dancing, Woman, Female, Girl