Evaluation

In what ways does your Media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My music magazine uses a range of conventions used by many other real/corporate music magazines. The most obvious form of this would be the layout as the layout I chose to use is generic of most magazines, I carefully studied the layout of magazines such as NME and Kerrang! and was inspired by them for my magazine, using particular fonts and framing the main photo with writing. Also using conventional written language and features such as a masthead, date, strapline, price etc. Veering away from conventions, I chose to leave out the barcode from the front cover as I felt it cluttered the space, this would go on the back page as opposed to next to the date/issue no./price. The photograph challenges dated conventions of photographs of musicians with instruments and fits with those of today's more modern photographs, although the photo I have chosen to use for my front cover is compariable to that of Blondie in 1977 with a cigarette, which is iconic of "rock and roll" that can be found in the "Photo Development" post.

How does your Media product represent particular social groups?
My music magazine definitely represents particular social groups through the images used. I feel these images convey young people aged 16-25 whom are ovbiously into music as that is what the magazine is promoting, but slightly left-wing and cutting edge, possibly students. This is shown through the people in my images and their demeanour, such as my front cover photograph of Jess, this was not a posed photograph but the cigarette, piercing and posture are all examples of this, also the relaxed, informal language shows this. The group that it is representing is also image wary, concious of clothes, hair, make-up etc. This is portrayed again, through the images as they are all aiming to be attractive and "now", this is because is this day and age events have never been more documented (through photography/filming etc) and published (on facebook/myspace/blogs etc), this may sound shallow but youth of today are more concious of thier apparence now more than ever.

What kind of Media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I would like to think that my magazine could be a subsidurary music magazine of Vice Magazine.Vice is a free magazine and media conglomerate founded in Montreal, Quebec and currently based in New York City. The magazine covers contemporary indie and youth culture. The magazine's readership comprises young postcollegiate bobos, often labelled "hipsters". Vice is known for its controversial content, and often strikes a sardonic and ironic pose on debauchery, sex, drugs, violence, crime, and social issues involving race and economic class. These ideologys fit with my magazine, and rebel against corporate, manufactured products.



Who would be the audience for your Media product?
The audience for my magazine would be who it's aiming to represent, young adults around the age of 16-25 interested and involved in underground sunbculture to do with up and coming music.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I have tried to attract my target audience with the appareance and content of my magazine, using interesting colours and a range of fonts appealing to the required age group. The different range of fonts represents the different types of music and people that are involved with such music and todays music scene, making my magazine versitile, hopefully catering for most tastes. The language used is also a device used to draw in a specific audience, although there is a minimalistic feel to the writing I feel that this also would draw in the audience, making them ant to know more about what's inside.


Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel that I have learnt the importance of structure and planning entailed in designing a magazine, and that editing plays a huge role in a successful design. I have thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with different photographs and finding out what works for the genre of magazine and target audience and hopefully my work shall improve in the future as I experiment more with these aspects.

Final cover, contents page & double page spread

Photo development

All the images I have taken and considered using I have edited using Adobe Photoshop 7, as magazines of any sort rarely use unedited images as they obviously look better afterwards. My photo's consist of "musicians" without instruments as I feel that the generic "band photo" with all memebers posing with their guitars at the ready etc is generally dated, unless is it from a live performance or taken subtley, however I have chosen to follow the conventions of now and excluded all instruments.

It has come to my attention that alot of promotional band photos often only feature the better looking frontman/woman, are usually staged to some extent and in the female-pop-icon case seem to be off-center and slightly edgey/quirky but still attractive. The following images are a few examples:

Ladyhawke

Florence and the Machine

Katy Perry


This set up is not only modern and seems to be a classic/convention
Blondie, 1977

Debbie Harry (Blondie) 2008


The following photographs were potential front cover material, I have edited each one to be suitable to feature as part of a music magazine.
Each one has had the lighting, colour and focus altered as shown below in some before and after comparisons and print screens.




These following images were considered for the double page spread.

I nearly used this photo and edited it, ready for text, then edited it again to make it look more gritty using black and white and darker neutral tones to create a contrasted effect without losing some of the tones around my sujects face preventing it from looking flat.

I eventually chose not to use this photo because she looks ultimately miserable, and that is not the look I wanted to achieve.




This was another image I edited to try out but still felt it didn't work as I preferred the above layout where the suject was closer up and took up more of the page. I have also decided I prefer colour for the double page spread.

Structure development

The first sketches of my cover and contents page ideas.

In this sketch I have used a simple but effective layout, following conventions of published music magazines which generally include: a masthead, a main focal photograph that has usually been edited, something written about the photograph, a strapline, date, issue no., price, other information, sometimes other photos and sometimes a pull in e.g. competition.

I haven't included every convention but used as many as I thought suitable. I would like the colour theme to tie into the colours that will be in the photograph as I would like quite a colourful cover, after considering black and white I felt that colour would be more attractive and not so serious as I want a slightly quirky but welcoming feel to the cover. I would like the fonts to differ in size and style but to still be relevent to the rest of the assests (colour, photo, words etc)



This draft conveys are more "sensible" feel, for people maybe over the age of 25, and was inspired by music magazines such as "Q". This layout is far more simple than the previous draft and would probably be a glossy magazine, feature bands such as Kings Of Leon and cost more, targetting an older audience with more disbosable money.



This is what I would like my contents page to resemble. The list of things in the magazine on the right is another convention of music magazines, as seen in kerrang! and NME. I would like the page to look a bit rough and imperfect, possibly with mismatched fonts/font sizes to convey the actual contents of the magazine as the music range would vary quite a lot.



I am intending for the contents page to have at least two photographs of other "musicians". I would like the photographs to be well taken and contrast with eachother to show diversity within the magazine, and include a "band". I have taken a few sets of photographs of different people in different circumstances e.g. posing, in a natural manner, and edited ones I felt would benefit from it, (top two and bottom two)

I have chosen the images I would like to use from the select few. The first image I want to use is the top right photograph, this is a picture of my brother reading a book. This photo was half-posed, as he was actually reading with a winter hat on but the fairy lights weren't on the back of the sofa. I also used a lamp to light up his face as the room was dark apart from the fairy lights, which adds a sense of rhythm to the picture, linking in with the music element. I edited the image making it greyscale with a slight yellow tone to it, but not so much it has become sepia. This adds warmth as opposed to harsh black and white which can be cold and unappealing, and it also fits with the nature of the photograph as reading is quite a gentle activity which is fitting to the type of musician I am conveying him as, (an acoustic guitar playing singer- songwriter) I have also altered the tones to add depth by adjusting the curves to make the whole photograph lighter, instead of increasing the brightness as this can cause the photograph to look foggy and decreases detail, then lowering the neutral tones and then the black tones slightly as not to make the shadows in the photo look slightly negative. I did it this way instead of using the straight forward contrast tool because quality is lost and a better result is gained by taking a bit more time using a different technique.
The second photo I have decided to use is the bottom left one of my freinds and I, taken using self timer. This photograph wasn't taken intentionally to be part of my magazine but as four girls dressed up I felt that this looked like a girl band shot. I edited the contrast in the same way as the above photo then added a cyan midtone. I also adjusted the white tones making them very slightly yellow for a warm/glowing skin effect, and added white/reduced the black in the red tones to make our drinks more pink, thus linking to the colour theme of the front cover.

Main task - Music Magazine (LIIAR)

The main task is to produce the cover, contents page and a double page spread of a music magazine. The first task i will complete is applying the media key concepts (Language, Ideology, Institution, Audience, Representation) to producing the required elements of a music magazine.

Language
The language used will be largely based on the audience, which will be down to what type of music magazine I would like to use as a template for my ideas. The language used will be the text size, font, colour etc, and content. Also the pictures and what they convey.

Institution
There are many institutions that publish music magazines such as the one I am developing. The main Institutions are Future, IPC and EMAP.

Future
Future Future includes titles such as Total Film and Guitar World, as well as Classic Rock, the UK’s fastest growing rock music magazine. They are the global market leader in guitar magazines From computer games to films, from cycling to music-making, they provide magazines, websites and events that inform, entertain and unite these communities.

IPC
IPC Media are the publishers of NME (New Musical Express) and they are one of the United Kingdom’s leading consumer magazine and digital publisher. This company manages to sell over 350 million copies each year when publishing the magazine. Around 27 million UK adults consume an ICP magazine each year. IPC’s brands are very simply at the heart of the UK's cultural life. High in representation and reaching their target audience.

EMAP
EMAP is a British media company, specialising in the production of business to business magazines, and the organisation of business events and conferences."EMAP" is an abbreviation of East Midland Allied Press. Magazines include: Sneak, Smash Hits! Kerrang!, Mixmag, Q and Mojo. EMAP worldwide publishing empire comprising 238 magazines worldwide in 15 countries, as well as TV and radio stations. As the number one consumer magazine publisher in the UK, there's a magazine for everyone

Ideology
The ideology behind my magazine is to promote and celebrate new and underground music, generally staying clear of main stream successful bands to give those that are not so known but talented a chance to shine. Other aspects of the magazine include insights to those musicians, upcoming music events and gigs. I want my magazine to be more personal that the big corporate magazines such as kerrang!

Audience
The audience I am appealing to are that of youths aged 16-25 that are into non mainstream music.

Representation
The magazine should represent the audience it is aimed at.

My final magazine is presented in the previous post. I produced this by using a photograph of my friend,that was not taken intentionally for the magazine, but i felt it served the purpose reasonably well and photoshopped it then used photoshop to do the lettering etc.

I used quite a simple layout, the picture in the middle and the writing framing it,in the fashion of Vogue, Glamour etc, and the writing in colours that co-ordinate with the photo; aqua/blue/tuquoise from the cyan tones in the photo and pinks/red from the (edited) lip colour, which is also a convention of magazines. This colour scheme fits perfectly with the aget audience, as the magazine is aimed at students, male and female, that attend wyke college. The font i chose to use was arial, this is because it is a simple font with no fuss and seems to be popular at the moment with merchandise aimed at young people.

I dont feel the magazine represents any social group within students in particular, but students that want to be successful as the strap line is "reach to achieve". The picture suggests a playfulness to lighten the subject of college.

I got some idea's for the writing advertising the articles inside the magazine from current issues in Wyke college that were posted up on the colege intranet, others were general interests of my own.

I should imagine that the institution that would fund/disperse this magazine would be Wyke college, as it is mainly beneficial for the college.

Wkye magazine