Front Cover, Contents page and Double page spread - finish.

Evaulation

Music Magazine Evaluation

For my AS Foundation Portfolio Production in Media studies I created a Music Magazine called ‘MUSIC4LIF3’ this consisted on creating a: front cover, contents page and a double paged spread. To do this I had to learn the conventions of a music magazine; I started to look at the magazine conventions and the layout used on previous music magazines: NME, Kerrang, and XXL, this gave me a better understanding of where everything had to go and the terminology used for each convention. The conventions are the same for all music magazines so to make mine as realistic as possible I followed the same conventions. Although not all the music magazines I looked at where related to my original genre, I wanted to compare and identify the differences between them and how and why the colours and images are used to attract a specific target audience. My genre was hip/charts because it’s what I know the most about and would make the project more interesting for me.

1.       In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product?

http://prezi.com/tw6-2h_mc3u9/present/?auth_key=enaoe77&follow=JessicaGowans - Magazine conventions: Front Cover (When on prezi – click ‘SHOW’ bottom right corner)

Magazine conventions: Contents page...

Only two images are used on the example I’m using, and I thought this was better than over crowing it with pictures because it gives away what is actually in the magazine. So I decided to use a minimum amount of images as possible so the main part of the contents page is the contents. The colour scheme carries on throughout into the double page spread and the contents page. In the process of making my contents page originally it was on the right hand side just like my template. However after feedback I got told to move it to the left hand side and place my images on the right. I loved the idea on the content page ‘base’ with the numbers not 100% in line with the features. Also I thought it would look better by adding my own little twist and making the contents different fonts and sizes. The colours used are relativity the same: red, black and white. To make my contents page look at realist as possible I included the page number in the right hand corner. [4]

Magazine conventions: Double Page spread...

LARGE headline. Although my double page spread headline is bigger than the example, the format is very similar.

Names in 'WHITE' - GOOD GIRL GONE BAD

WHITE' - BAD GIRL, FOR LIFE!

To make my magazine as realistic as possible I used ‘Pink – Good girl, For Life!’ as my example.

The beginning paragraph is an interview with Pink. - Rock rebel: Everyone's talking about your parodies of Paris, Jessica, Linsay and Mary-Kate, but 'Stupid Girls' is about more than that isn't it?

My beginning paragraph: Did anyone support you?

To be honest, no. My parent thought I was chasing a never ending dream; however they knew I could sing, but didn't think I'd get anywhere doing it! Which made me start to doubt, myself? Friends didn't think it was worth telling. They would have thought I was silly, so I kept it to myself.

I started my double page spread with a question also. I think this is really effective when reading about a singer you likes' life. So I used the whole double page spread article as a template and made it into an interview about how she got where she is in life now. Writing m article was the easiest part about my double page spread because when watching celebrities being questioned, the questions asked as simple and they don’t plan out what is going to be said, they answer the questions there and then, therefore I made my article as realistic as possible by using this method. I included quotes from her parents to show what she was like at a young age. Again relating back to my target audience as young adult wanting to know how she did it and being inspired.

Because the image is normally the first thing people look at when reading a double page spread, I think it's very important the image is taken up a lot of the page - also making it look like there isn't that much to read so the audience don't think they’re going to be spread forever reading an article they may not enjoy.

The image used in Pink’s double page is really effective. The mise en scene gives off the impression she is a bad girl. Linking back to her album cover 'Bad Girl, For Life' her clothes link in with the colours used on the article: pink and black. Pink symbolises innocence and feminine however the black contrasts because it symbolises power and dominant, rock and roll. Creating the impression she is a bad (black) pink (girl)

Neither of the texts includes a by-line of the photographer, or the journalist who wrote the article. The caption on my double page spread is a little teaser about the artist represented. Pink's caption is actually about her album, however I've wrote mine about Lauren a little interesting fact about Lauren.

2.       How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Because my image is taken in a bar it clearly shows it’s for the younger adults, however stereotypically teenagers are drinking and attending parties more and more underage which widens my target audience. The clothes she is wearing shows the audience she has spent time making her look this good. The media is known to overwhelm reader’s views and convincing them to believe everything they read in magazines; and want to look more and more like celebrities, so what she looks like is crucial because the image is the main attraction of a Music Magazine. The contents on the front cover should say something they feel they can relate to due to their social group/scene. Additionally, I included a well-known rap artist: Usher. This again symbolizes the youth of the magazine and makes people who like Usher want to read the magazine he is in.

3.       What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

From previous research on the IPC media institution they market their magazine at three main audiences; men, upmarket women and mass marker women. Therefore this company would not be a good institution to publish my music magazine. However this could be an okay one to publish my magazine because it attracts women. However I want my audience to be as big as possible.

The next company I researched was Bauer Media Institution. This company owns over 80 published magazines. This would be perfect to  use to publish and promote my magazine because ‘Kiss’ radio station is involved and this is where the music I used for my genre is played. RnB, hip-hop. Kiss Reaches 3.7 million listeners across the UK, giving them all of the best in dance, hip hop and R&B on radio, TV & online.

FHM is the UK's biggest men’s lifestyle media brand and the PPA’s International Magazine of the Year 2008. The magazine is the standard-bearer among British men's magazines. www.greatmagazines.co.uk was launched in 2003 and has since established itself as the Number 1 magazine subscription website in the UK.

4.       Who would be your audience for your media product?

My original plan has always being the same when planning my target audience; young adults. I understand a lot better because I have the mind of a teenager and I’m more liking to know what a young adult would want in a magazine rather than an older person; person(s) used for the image has to be strictly young; colours used and language used needs to be not too formal, but includes a little in formalness too, most young people now days tend to have mobile phones and use social networking sites and over time new language has developed. Stereotypically students and young adults are lazy. Therefore when typing becomes a chore we tend to use shorter terms for words. For example we used numbers for letter: for = 4, to = 2. Every day saying such as oh my god: omg. Atm = at the moment. Sayings are being reproduced rapidly therefore I thought it was a great idea to include a bit of slang into my masthead to show it’s clearly aimed towards the younger generation because older people don’t understand how to use technology as much as the younger generation. This is why I decided to put a little slang into my title, however not too much otherwise it would attract a target audience I don’t want too. ‘MUSIC4LIF3’

Again because my background image is taken in a bar and she’s also young tells the audience who this magazine is aimed at. The colours used are very sophisticated and dominant (red and black) 

5.       How did you attract/address your audience? I attracted my audience by researching what do teenagers actually enjoy reading? Well, not many enjoy reading a big amount. So if an article is written and it loads like a lot of reading its most likely they will avoid reading it. Therefore it’s best to make it look as little writing as possible, which relates back to the importance of the image. I wanted to make my image as professionally looking as possible and to do so I needed to do it somewhere better then at a College. Therefore I took the images in my own time, rather than in College time. The genre of my magazine is charts/RnB/hip-hop, and because it’s a music magazine it needs to relate to that. After watching many music videos with millions of hits on YouTube it shows what attracts people’s attention. Most are either women dancing in clubs/bars or popular singers such as Chris Brown, Sean Paul, 50 cent, Pit bull being danced upon, stereotypically telling me that’s what attracts viewers’ attention, so my front cover and double page spread and to be classy to attract my audience but appropriate.

6.       What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The software Photoshop was used when creating my magazine covers. Publisher was used when creating templates for my double page spread, front covers and contents page. Microsoft publisher was so much easier to use for me because before Wyke I never had a clue how to use Photoshop but after practicing for a long time I managed to just get the hang of it. Lucky I never had to edit my image too much because the photograph was a good image. No red eye removal or spot fix. However I used a variety of fonts and layers within my cover. I raised the contract of my image to make the image a bit lighter a used the sharp tool to make her face look clearer.  At the beginning I cut around my image getting rid of all the background but because the back ground was black as well as her outfit, Photoshop had trouble figuring out which bits I wanted to get rid of. Moreover I scraped cutting her out and used the full image. I think this was a great choice to use.

7.       Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

My preliminary task was to create a college magazine. My full product was creating a music magazine front cover, double page spread and contents page. Comparing the two pieces of work to what I know now and what I knew then; I have learnt so much more. When making the College magazine I didn’t know the importance of making a magazine other than it had to look good an appeal to a target audience. However when researching into different magazine covers and how professional each one looked, I realised there in a lot more to it than just having a specific target audience. When looking at a music magazine front cover, I instantly looked at the image. If the image does not appeal to me then it would be very unlikely I would consider buying it. I make it my main task to find an image to take which would make my music magazine represent a genre and tick all the boxes. On the other hand, when designing and making my college magazine I just took a random picture and thought it was good enough to be shown on a college magazine: I was wrong. I never buy music magazines so I don’t really know what would appeal to me. When researching magazine covers it made me so excited and inspirational to start creating my own! This is when I started making mood boards of my favourite music magazines and the images used within them to make them stand out so much. If you look at the differences between both front covers you will see how much effort has actually gone into each cover.  I never took the rule of left third seriously in my college magazine; barcode has no basic information on (price, date, issue number); image is not in the middle; masthead very basic; flashes just put anywhere with no thought or effort put into it. I clearly didn’t research into magazines very well as you can see from the lack of effort into the college magazine. Additionally my music magazine considers all the left third, flashes in appropriate places and with reasonable things written within them, barcode includes: date, issue number, music magazine name and issue number. A teaser is used and the main cover lines are used in the correct places.