Evaluation

This is the evaluation of my Music Magazine. It sums up why I did what I did to create and develop my final draft of the coursework section.

Question 1 - In what ways does your magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real music magazines?

 My music magazine both follows and challenges forms and conventions of a real life music magazine. With the images that I chose, I would say that they challenge the forms and conventions of real life music magazines. This is because on the front cover, I opted to have a single black and white photo of the rapper that the main feature was about in the magazine which was right aligned with the cover lines on the left hand side of the page being left aligned. I chose to do this because I felt that it would have more of an impact on the audience at first glance then with to much going on on the page. I also feel that the facial expression of the rapper helped to in keep with they style of photo that I intended on getting. His facial expression was direct eye contact with the camera and a aggressive, mean look on his face. This would also have an impact on the audience because it makes the magazine seem more personal rather then if he was looking over the camera laughing.


This is a "Wordle" I made to show the key forms and conventions of a front cover for a magazine.

This is an example of Billboard magazine using a single black and white image whit eye contact with the camera. 

Contents

In general, I don't think I followed the key forms and conventions of a real life music magazine contents page. This is because again, I chose to only have two images and not many cover lines. I chose to do this because if my contents page was to packed with information and busy with things going on I don't think the target audience would have been able to look at it and relate to it. I tried to keep it as simple as possible and easy and nice to read. I anchored the cover lines with the page numbers that they related to so that they were easy to find in the magazine and the reader wouldn't have to navigate through to find it. This was in keeping with key forms and conventions of a real music magazine contents page because all of them have this on their contents pages to show the reader where the key stories and features of the magazine are.

This is a "Wordle" I made showing the key forms and conventions of a Music Magazine Contents page.

Double Page Spread

For my double page spread I decided that I would go mainly with the forms and conventions of a real double page spread. I chose to have one page containing a couple of pull quotes and two large images of the rapper that the interview was conducted on. I chose to do this because it anchors the interview and makes it look more appealing, it also gives it another dimension. The pull quotes show the interesting sections of the interview to try and entice the reader in if they are just flicking through and it catches their eye. I chose to set the interview out in three columns going vertically down the left hand page. This was not only to save space, but also to add a certain formality to the magazine to show that it is a serious interview. I also used a drop capital. This is again to grab the attention of the reader and make it seem more formal. I also used a water mark in behind the actual interview. It was a large letter "O". With the rappers name being "O-Bee" this shows the reader that the interview is all about him and has his mark on it.

This is a "Wordle" I created showing the key conventions of a music magazine double page spread.

Question 2 - How does your magazine represent particular social groups?

These are my front cover, double page spread and contents images. 

I chose to have these images because I feel that the eye contact with the camera instantly makes a connection with the reader. This is especially the case for the image on the right, I chose this one as my front cover photo for his facial expression, the shade of the image and his positioning. His facial expression is mean and angry looking, this reflects the rappers attitude and feelings at the time of the interview. He also looks inquisitive which would make the reader want to find out more about him. I knew when I was taking the image that I was going to have it in black and white so I made sure that the lighting wasn't to bright so it looked unnatural. I also positioned him towards the left hand side of the frame because I knew that I was going to have the cover lines and masthead towards the right of him.
I chose to have this image on my double page spread because I felt that it reflected the feelings and attitude of interview and it also shows that the interview provoked reaction and emotion with the rapper because it is hard to communicate that via a written interview. I chose to have the rapper in the same clothing as the cover photo, this is because I wanted it to seem as if the photo's were both taken in the same time frame and were related to each other.








In this image, also on my double page spread, I wanted to show a different side to the rapper and to show that he enjoyed working with the magazine to produce the interview. It also shows the rapper from a different angle rather then having him looking toward the camera, I chose to have him looking away. This shows that he is communicating with the person interviewing him and has a relationship with them not just the camera.






In this image, I decided to have another artist feature on my contents page. This is to put a bit of verity into the magazine and to show a range of artists that will be featured later on in the magazine rather then just using one. I chose to have him with his hands on his face looking down, this shows that he is depressed but also in deep thought. It shows that he is focused. I chose to have this artist in a tank top and wearing a chain, this is to show that he is a gangster and is dressed as a real rapper would.



Below is a picture of Eminem on the cover of "Vibe" magazine wearing a tank top and silver chain with eye contact with the camera and a mean look on his face. This example gave me a few ideas on how to position and direct the artists I was taking photo's of.

Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your magazine and why?

If I was to choose a company that could publish my music magazine, that company would be Bauer Consumer Media. This is because they are so well known not only in the UK as well but also around the world. This would give my magazine a fantastic platform for popularity early on. I also feel that the experience gained from publishing Mojo, Q and Kerrang! magazines would be perfect for the progress of my magazine. The style isn't something that Bauer have published before so this might be the perfect way for them to target the market niche. This might be another reason that they would choose to take my magazine on, because they haven't had one from this particular genre so they might be looking to widen their portfolio of music magazines that they publish.

This is a link to the Bauer website - http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/ .

Question 4 - who would be the audience for your music magazine?

This is a mood board that refelcts the genre and attitude of my magazine. It shows that the target audience for my magazine would be the peoplee who listen to this genre of music which are teenagers to mid 20's who are interested in rap music and news on the rap/hip hop scene. This might be because the people featured in my magazine would be the icons of these people and they want to hear about them.

The Uses and Gratification Theory
many audience theories have focused on the effect media texts have on audiences, seeing them as essentially passive, a group to whom things are done by mediators. An example of this passive audience theory would be hypodermic syringe. However, uses and gratification turns the attention to a different aspect; what does the audience do with the text instead of what the text does to the audience. This means how much attention they pay to the text and how much they actually absorb rather then just scan reading it. Two media theorists called Blumler and Katz came up with the concept that the audience choose what they think of the text rather then letting the text manipulate them and being told what to think. This reinforces the readers personal identity so they feel individual and they know they aren't just going along with what the magazine wants them to think.

Feedback
I asked someone from my target audience what they thought of my music magazine front cover. They said this. "The good things about it are the originality of the image and the amount of space that the background takes up, this makes it seem like a more solid image. Also I like the yellow circle with the special offer in because it draws attention to it because of how it contrasts against the low key background. This would make it more appealing to the audience if they were to look at it on a shop shelf. The negatives are that there is to much space between the masthead and the tagline. The mast head also chops off to much of the image and could reveal his hat more.The menu strip is good because it is red and again shows a different dimension because of the colour and stands out and the bar code makes it seem more realistic."

Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

This is a power point I made about what conventions and methods I used to attract the readers to my magazine.

Attracting the audience

Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process constructing your magazine?

The technologies I used during the creation of my music magazine were a still camera which I used to take the images. The camera that I used was a Panasonic DMC - FZ8 in the raw file setting. I did it in the raw file setting because it would make it eaiser for me to edit the images once I uploaded them onto Photoshop.  I also used photo shop to piece the magazine together and also to crop and manipulate the images. The tools that I used on Photoshop were the magic wand tool to edit out the background of the images, the lasso tool, the healing tool which allowed me to get rid of any unwanted skin blemishes, colour selector and the shape tool.

Here I have used some software called "smart recorder" which allows you to record the process I went through to create my front cover on Photoshop.

Question 7 - Looking back at your pre-lim task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

 This is my front cover for my sixthform pre-lim magazine.















This is my music magazine front cover that I completed after the pre-lim task.

This is the contents page for my pre-lim task.

This is the contents page for my Music Magazine.

I feel that from the preliminary task, I learnt a lot about how to use different media technologies and also the key conventions of how a magazine should be put together. Mostly I felt that my ability to be able to use Photoshop has been the most noticeable to me because before either of the exercises I had never used it before, however I now feel that I have now come to terms with at least the basics of Photoshop. For example, I can now edit, crop and position a picture. I am also able to download fonts from websites such as "dafont.com" and use them in my magazine, this allows my magazine to look more realistic rather then just using a standard font from Photoshop. The conventions that I learnt about also just came with experience of reading various music magazines and noticing what most of them did on their covers, contents pages and double page spreads.

Planning

These are my ideas for my preliminary task which is to create a sixth form magazine.

Front Cover
For the front cover of the magazine my initial idea was to have somebody holding an award but I decided against it because I thought it would be to poorly composed and inappropriate for the target audience because not many people would be able to relate to it. Instead I chose to have a picture of a standard student smiling and looking directly into the lense of the camera. The impact that this has is that it makes the reader feel more involved and connected to the magazine, especially if one of their peers is on the front cover. I also chose the have the Title of "OnForm". This is because it has successful connotations and makes the student aspire to be in it because it gives off a positive impression of them with this title above their head. I have also used hierarchy of text size to show what is the most important section of text which is the title. I have used cover lines to try and interest the read and relate it to the reader. This is because if it is related to them they feel more connected to the magazine. I also decided to use the website Kuler to get an appropriate colour scheme for the cover lines and heading. This worked because it made sure that the two colours didn't clash and made sure that one cover line wasn't to bold to make the others look insignificant but also so they didn't just fade into the back ground.

Contents page
I have decided to use two images that relate to the stories on my contents page because this way the reader gets a small incite into what the story says. I also have a picture of a female student reading a book in the bottom left corner of the page. This shows the academic side of the school because the stories are relatively sport related which opens the magazine to a wider audience. I have opted to go for text that is on a slant. This suggests that the magazine is less formal and is like a break for the students from all the work they are doing. I have also included a page number to match with the text to show the reader what page the story is on. This is helpful because it saves the reader from flicking through the whole magazine to find it.

This is the original image that I took to go on the cover of my Sixth form magazine. It shows a student in a suit smiling making direct eye contact with the camera. The suit suggests formality yet the smile suggests that he is enjoying himself. It is a simple image with a plane background. This fits in with what I wanted the magazine to be like; simple yet gets the point of sixth form across to the students. I later cropped and re-sized the image on Photoshop so it fit on the front cover. This made the image not stand out so much that it detracted attention from the key cover lines but at the same time didn't fade into the background.








Music Magazine - these are a few basic idea's that I have had for my music magazine

The magazine is going to be called "Beat" because it reflects the type of music that is inside and it is also easy to say. The genre is going to be Rap/Hip Hop. Inside the magazine will include tour dates, interviews with artists, roomers around the world of rap/hip hop and the meaning behind some of the artists songs. My unique selling point that separates it from any other Hip Hop/Rap magazine is going to be a free song download code every time a new album is released and the magazine is promoting/covering it. I would consider my biggest rivals in the real world would be XXL. This is because it is the most famous magazine that focus' completely on rap/hip hop music. The colour scheme for my front cover is going to be shades of black, white and gray. This is because it is simple and also stands out because not many other magazines have this colour scheme. The main cover line is going to be "Worlds best rapper but getting BIGGER". This is because the key story is going to be about a rapper called "O-Bee" who is a world known rapper but his recent album, "sting like O-Bee" sales are increasing.

Images
The Main front cover image is going to be a medium close up of rapper in a tank top looking down with arms crossed/folded. Hands showing gun gesture. No eye contact shows the individuality of the rapper. It will be in black and white. The hand gesture suggests he is a gangster and that he doesn't conform to the values of society because he does what he wants. The secondary image on the cover will show the same rapper but in a less aggressive or provoking stance, this shows a different side to the person. The photo's on the contents page are going to include a close up of the rapper getting interviewed and a female rapper with an aggressive stance squaring up to the camera suggesting attitude.


These are my flat plans of my music magazine.

These are the flat plans for my preliminary exercise.

Research

This section contains all the research work I have done in order to complete the brief.

We did areas of research to get an idea of what a real sixth form magazine looked like and contained. To do this I went onto http://www.kehs.org.uk/ which is King Edwards School For Girls high school website. Their sixth form magazine is called "High Profile" this name gives the impression of success so I think it is a good name to have for a sixth form magazine. On the cover of the magazine the pictures are big, bright and it is clear what is going on in them. They also have appropriate use of humor in the coverlines where play on words and multiple meanings are used to make the reader want to read what the story is about. There is also a large range of font styles and font hierarchy to show which title is more important. This is a image of one of the front covers that kehs chose to use for "High Profile"

I also did research on http://www.gshs.org.uk/home which is George Stephenson High School. Their magazine is called "Evolve" which I think is a good name for a magazine because it suggests getting better and improving which is good for students. The font is very informal and curvy, this might be because it relates to the students and suggests that it isn't all about work. The students might also see it as taking a break from all the work they have to relax and read this informal magazine. However, the use of colour on the front cover does not contrast well. This is because they are both the text and the background are both "hard" colours so they clash. This is a contents page that GSHS used in one of their issues.

Comparison
Between Evolve and High Profile, I find that High Profile would draw me in more. This is because the background of the picture is continuous which makes it seem more professional because it doesn't have sharp edited images. The font of the title also makes High Profile seem more appealing because of the formality of it. This is because the Evolve magazine is in a serif font which makes it look like it appeals to a younger audience. Also, the name High Profile suits a high school magazine more because it connotes that it is a high school and denotes that the school is of a high standard. I also think the colour scheme of High Profile suits a school magazine because it looks more professional and formal rather then red, white and black that Evolve have chose to adopt.



I also did research into various magazines contents pages. I found out several reoccurring themes that often popped up on different magazines no matter what the genre of the magazine. A prime example of this was the colour of the font in contrast to the back ground. For example, red font was often used for the cover lines on a plane white background with yellow font used on advertisement to catch the readers eye and accent it. It also emphasis's  its importance. There was usually over 5 images on each page, with a verity of styles. They ranged from album covers, key images which usually involved eye contact from the artist or band to show the relationship and also live performances. The importance of the live performance photo's show that the magazine is involved in the artist/bands life. There was often a sense of symmetry to some of the contents pages. This shows that although it may look like things have just been dropped into place they have been thought about and tactically placed. The hierarchy of text size is also important and dominantly used by every contents page regardless of the genre. The font size usually reflects the importance of the story, the bigger the font the more important it is. San serif is used for most of the titles and serif for the stories, this could be to attract attention to the headlines. The gestures that some of the band members and artists are doing seem to be provoking reaction or just to try and get across their attitude.


I did some research into the front cover of magazine industry, these are the main points that I noticed about most of the main conventions used on the cover of music magazines.


• Big, bold magazine name. Masthead has to be in the biggest font. Logo, colour and scheme font.
• Banner/strapline – phrase underneath name, suggest status
• Key main image. MCU of a person. Non-verbal code. Mise en scene, pose, gesture.
• Head cover line/Lead/Key – anchors the key image
• Secondary + additional cover line – 2 or 3 strategically – right aligned on right hand side and left aligned on left hand side.
• Price/date/issue/website in smallest font.



Magazine Producers
Bauer is a music magazine producer that produces magazines such as FHM, Q and Kerrang! they are the biggest and most popular music producer in the producing business. They claim to reach over 19 million UK adults across multi media channels. This is a quote off their website talking about themselves "Our business is built on influential media brands with millions of personal relationships with engaged readers and listeners. Our strategy is to connect audiences with excellent content through our broad multi-touch point brand platforms, wherever and whenever and however they want. Our wide portfolio of influential brands gives us advantages over pure play magazine or radio competitors.". There magazine was created in 1953 and has continued to increase as a business and grow as a magazine producer.

Introduction

My name is Daniel Hughan and I am a media student at The Fallibroome Academy. I will keep keeping track of all of my planning for my AS media coursework via this blog. The brief is to design the front cover, contents page and double page spread for a new music magazine. All of the text and images used in this blog are original and produced by me unless stated otherwise.