Finished Music Magazine Pages

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

When I started the preliminary task I had no skills or knowledge of using InDesign or any of the other programs listed in Question 6. Having little understanding of how to use the software’s in the preliminary task meant I produced a student magazine of which I was not proud of - I feel as though I didn’t put my full potential and ability into the task and I produced a poor quality piece of work. When it came to start producing the main task I felt increasingly more confident as I had been taught many new features and I had watched many videos on YouTube explaining how to do certain things on InDesign. I have learnt how to make my practical work look more professional by asking my target audience what they think and doing my own research into what indie/pop magazines look like and what content they feature.

During my preliminary task I did little research and this didn’t help me in analysing my magazine pages. I did more research for my indie music magazine which helped me with designing and constructing my magazine as I knew the forms and conventions of indie magazines, as well as what the layout should be like. The preliminary task contained no continuity and the layout was unprofessional, the key conventions were all over the place and it looked very complex. The magazine I produced for my main task looked more professional as I stayed with only a few colours to create a sense of simplicity and continuity throughout my magazine (green, white, black). The general conventions were placed more appropriately in my music magazine as I knew what would look best as I had done a lot more research, for example, my images on my contents page were placed far more appropriately as they were next to the relevant information.

I also spent more time on the photography aspect of my music magazine as I feel the photographs are what draw the readers in (it’s the hook that 70% of people buy magazines based on). I learnt how to make my photographs look more appealing to my target audience – I used a proper digital camera to take the photographs and I used a spotlight with the images with a white/negative background. In the live photographs I focused on how my models were being represented. In the (long-shot) central image featured on my double page spread, the model looks slightly moody, but in the bottom left hand corner, in the secondary image, the same model is smiling/laughing. This is because I wanted to beat stereotypes of ‘indie’/hipster people, people assume they are moody or in a bad mood all the time. I beat the stereotype as I showed that she is happy and can have a good time.

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

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

Question 4 "Who would be the audience for your media product?"

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

Q3 from shannonclrke

Question 2 "How does your media product represent particular social groups?"

I decided to present Question 2 as a magazine double page spread.

Question 1 "In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?"

Media Studies Evaluation: Question 1 from shannonclrke

Re-draft of my Evaluation for my Main Task

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

 

The key conventions of a music magazine are the masthead, brand identity, splash, barcode and price, house style, coverlines, central image, streamline, mode of address, articles trailed, pug, puff and a headline. The front cover of a magazine has to include a central image, a masthead, a headline and splash is common, coverlines are too. A typical contents page has a masthead, a list-like format of the contents (the most important things the magazine is featuring or what the writers think the public will enjoy most), a few images relating to the contents on the contents page, page numbers of the most important things the magazine is featuring. A typical double page spread in a music magazine contains an article or interview of an artist of band. A main image, large amounts of text, the masthead, a title and secondary images are commonly featured on a double page spread.

I wanted to create a magazine that was unlike any other already available, so I had to research indie/alternative magazines already in the market of which I wanted to appeal to and then I had to put my own ideas to it.

During my research, I noticed that many of the indie magazines I analysed had only one word as their masthead, and also in one block colour of capital letters, e.g. DAZED, MOJO, FLUX. Therefore, I kept within the conventions by making my masthead one singular command word written in capitals (EXPLORE) and one block colour (green). However, to produce a magazine unlike any other, I reduced the weight of my type and increased the tracking. I also noticed that indie magazines such as DAZED and MOJO positioned their masthead at the top (and centred) of the front cover.

The magazines I researched had a very informal mode of address and spoke in a laid-back way. In my research I found that an informal but sophisticated mode of address was used in the majority of the music magazines I analysed as it relates well to my target audience as it connotes friendliness and contains forms of formal language.

The majority of my fonts were sourced from Adobe InDesign so I actually have an overlap of fonts as I was limited to the fonts I could use, but, this creates continuity between my magazine pages. For example, a few words in my splash on my front cover are of the same font as the text in my article on my double page spread. This creates a consistant house style throughout my magazine. The majority of my fonts are sans-serif, meaning that my characters do not have small lines at the end of them. Sans-serif fonts were originally used for younger readers; they connote a sense of simplicity and youth.

The mis-en-scene of my images follow and abide by the key conventions of real indie music magazines. Upon research into ideal images for my music magazines I discovered that the majority of the photographs used looked professional and well edited. The majority of the photographs I saw were live shots or taken with a background. I included photos with clean, negative, white backgrounds and photos with busy and natural backgrounds. The clothing my models were wearing were simplistic but also trendy and unique, which is to be expected from young and upcoming new artists.

 

 

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

 

The social group I have represented is mainly teenagers to young adults who are interested in the indie/pop music. I have represented them by including photos and images in my magazine of that particular social group. I feel as though I’ve tried to represent them in an alternative way which reflects a more emergent ideology. I have used more pictures than text I think, except for the Double Page Spread - my research stated that the DPS pages contain more text than images. I have constructed the representation of my target audience through elements of photography. My model for my front cover was chosen because she has the right image; she’s of the similar age of my target audience who enjoys listening to indie/alternative music.

During the research and planning stages of producing my media product, the audience research, audience profile and artists profile were very important as I wanted to ensure that the certain product I was making attracted my target audience and appealed to them. I carried out research and did an audience profile on my target audience by asking questions and asking them to fill out surveys and questionnaires. From my research, I found that my target audience like both new, upcoming music and old, greatest hits, some listen to records, buy music from stores such as HMV and online stores such as Apple Music. My findings made me realise that I will need to feature new, upcoming artists who have an interest in older, more experienced bands and artists. I will also need to ensure that my artists have a similar clothing style as my target audience. My artists (who feature in my magazine) dress in a different and unique way that is till simplistic and contains elements of being fashionable. The model on my front cover is wearing an aztec patterened jumper/sweater with tights. I styled her in a very unique way which represents my audience (social group) as it is not mainstream meaning it does not ‘follow the crowd’. The jumper is vintage and my model bought it from a thrift shop – this also represents my target audience as they can be found shopping in charity/thrift shops too.

 

 

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

 

Referring back to my Student Pitch I can see that some indie/pop magazines are run by the magazine themselves. For example, The Wire’s publisher is The Wire Magazine LTD (a private limited company) which has been run independently since December 2000. I would not be able to do this with my magazine as it’s newly available in the market - I wouldn’t have the right resources or skills to provide advertisement for the magazine in order for it to sell well. Dazed and Confused is another indie magazine, but is published by Waddell Limited. It’s a niche publishing company. I think they would like to distribute and publish my magazine as, although it’s fairly similar to Dazed and Confused, it has certain aspects about it which Dazed and Confused doesn’t have. For example, my magazine offers reviews of old and upcoming new artists, how the readers can get involved.

The main companies that I have found that would be the best for distributing my magazines would be either: Waddell Media LTD, The Wire LTD, or Bauer Media. These three groups would benefit the growth of my magazine because they all represent magazines that are innovative and current but also appeal to a niche market.

I think Waddell Media LTD would like to distribute my music magazine. Waddell Media has really influenced my own magazine – the company has had many years of experience to help it establish its readership and they’ve also uncovered how to appeal to a specific target market and to be successful. Waddell LTD have been very successful for many years so they have experience in reaching out to their alternative target audience and this appeals to me because I want to be able to attract my ideal target market, which is the indie/alternative (niche) market.

The institution already publishes a magazine called DAZED, therefore I feel as though even if they are already publishing an alternative magazine they have room for a slightly different one. If they did publish my magazine, I feel as though they would utilise that audience they already have for their publication and transfer that knowledge to my magazine EXPLORE and provide it with the best possible chance for success and growth/expansion.

I am pricing my magazine at £3.50 which is considerably lower than the magazines I researched. I have priced it at this price because my ideal target audience will probably not have a lot of disposable income, and, I think, £3.50 is a reasonable price to pay for my magazine considering my content and the fact that my magazine is published seasonally (Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter) only four times a year – that’s only £14.00 every year! I would also include product placement in my magazine, such as the type of adverts that are included in DAZED (new albums, new films), this would be something that I would like to feature in my magazine as I would have a small film section. I would also have fashion adverts as well as brands that are of a similar style to my design of the magazine and also the artists in it. I would include brands such as Urban Outfitters, Topshop, Topman, rokit.com, vintage stores such as Farah Vintage, Beyond Retro and marketplace on ASOS. Using product placements allows my readers and potential readers to be drawn in because they are based on things that my target market is interested in. Hopefully Waddell Media LTD would be aware of this and they would want to publish my indie/alternative music magazine.

 

 

4. Who would be the audience for your magazine?

 

I feel as though the gender would be mainly female and the age range can vary from 16-30 but more specifically 18-24 year olds. My audience would be quite alternative and appeal to a niche market. I want to beat the stereotypes of ‘indie’/hipster individuals by representing them in a happy/smiley way. Most people assume that this group of people are quite moody and like to keep to themselves. I want to produce a magazine that will appeal to both types of people.

They would dress quite fashionably and shop at places like Urban Outfitters, thrift/charity shops, vintage shops like ‘rokit.com’ and perhaps Topshop/Topman. They would mainly buy their clothes and materials online with their disposable money from working.

Their education could vary from college/sixth form to early work - this means that their annual income could be quite low or average, meaning that their disposable income would be low, so the price of my music magazine would have to be fairly cheap so my audience would be able to afford it. As the magazine would be cheap, the content would be less than a £5.00 magazine would contain like Vogue, or Elle, or Dazed. They would enjoy fairly cheap magazines full of content appealing to them.

My alternative audience’s interests would be photography, fashion and creative arts. Their hobbies would be reading, photography, going to concerts of their favourite artists and bands and being outside with nature.

The buying habits of my target audience would include concert tickets, unique clothes and jewellery, CDs, records/vinyls and maybe DVDs of the indie genre.

The music my audience would listen to would be indie/alternative artists and bands like The Pretty Reckless, The 1975, Lana Del Rey, The xx, The Neighbourhood, Mayday Parade, Two Door Cinema Club and Royal Blood. They wouldn’t tune into radio stations such as Capital FM or BBC Radio 1 ad they do not play music appealing to my target audience.

 

 

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

 

I attracted my target audience by producing an eye-catching front cover to draw them in, 70% of people buy magazines on the spur of the moment so the front cover is a very important aspect. In my planning and research I came up with a list of possible names for my magazine, after a while I finally decided upon EXPLORE. I chose this firstly because of it’s nature, when you see this name you instantly think of something adventurous and inspiring and it can be interpreted in many ways. The distance between the letters of EXPLORE is called tracking and the use of a single command word creates a sense of simplicity. The use of the capital letters for EXPLORE creates emphasis and excitement as the letters are bolder and larger than lowercase letters - they stand out to the viewer more and they can easily find the title they’re looking for in a magazine stand if the masthead is bold and easily readable.

The colour scheme on my front cover is quite dark but it contains elements of greenery which connotes the adventurous side of the magazine. The word explore, to me, connotes the colour green, this symbolism is continued throughout the magazine as my masthead is of that colour. The colour green is quite striking and would stand out to the viewers.

I used a variety of fonts suitable to my magazine to appeal to the mark scheme for the main task. The fonts I used were candara, MoolBoran, Ebrina, Sakkal Majalla, Hobo Std and Plantagenet Cherokee. The fonts I used were mainly sans-serif (characters without handles) as my research stated that many indie music magazines didn’t have these ‘handles’ on the end of characters as it felt to formal for their magazine. In my planning I noticed that the magazines I researched had a large amount of space between the letters in a word or sentence; this is called tracking. I wanted to continue the use of tracking in my magazine so I used it on my magazine pages.

Throughout my magazine I kept all my images relatively the same; they were all edited in Photoshop using levels, saturation, curves, balance and many more techniques. They were all in colour and some were taken outside, and some in a studio with a blank background. This creates a contrast and allows the readers to see both sides of the magazine.

The mode address, the way in which the magazine speaks to the reader, is fairly informal which can be linked to the genre of the music magazine. Spoken in a relaxed and chilled way allows the reader to feel more connected to the person speaking (especially if it’s on the double page spread - the reader can create a connection with the article).

 

 

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

 

Blogger is an online blog posting website of which I used to document my planning and research of my music magazine. I learnt how to embed presentations from SlideShare into a blog post, and I also learnt how to add high quality images into Blogger. The strengths of using Blogger is that it enables me to clearly organise my work and I can edit and update my work whenever I feel that I need to. A drawback of using Blogger is that in order for me to upload a file/image, it has to be in a JPEG format, so, when I wrote something in a Word document, I had to copy and paste it into Blogger and waste time sorting out the fonts and text size. This was rather annoying as like I said, I feel as though it just wasted time.

I used SlideShare to upload and make presentations onto. A drawback of SlideShare is that I found it quite difficult to navigate myself through the website – I found it very confusing and I had to watch a few YouTube clips teaching me how to use it. Another drawback is that you have to post all your presentations to your clipboard. A positive of SlideShare is that it is really easy to upload to Blogger. You just find the embedded code on SlideShare, copy it, and paste it to a new post on Blogger. And after a while of using it, I found it incredibly easy to navigate my way around the website.

InDesign is a designing and constructing software of which I used to produce my magazine pages. After using InDesign for my preliminary task, I felt much more confident in using it for my main task. I had a greater understanding of how to navigate my way around the software. I knew how to add text boxes and images, I knew how to export my magazine pages and I felt very familiar with the software. I learnt how to use tracking, kerning, drop caps, the baseline and what the bleed line is. Some negatives of InDesign are that there weren’t that many fonts available to use, therefore the fonts I used were not the fonts I wanted to use originally. I had to compromise with the ones available, so my magazine did not look how I wanted it to.

Photoshop was a really useful software for me. I already knew how to use the editing software so I felt as though I saved a lot of time; I didn’t waste time watching tutorials on YouTube teaching me how to do things. Photoshop was useful for the manipulation of my photographs. I was able to brighten, crop, adjust the levels and curves and recolour my images. This was very useful as it enabled me to create photographs and images relevant and appropriate for my target audience. A drawback of Photoshop is that I had to try out and ‘test’ the effects before applying them to the photo which wasted very valuable time.

I had to take five of my own photographs to feature on my magazine, so, I had to use my own digital camera. I was already familiar and confident with using a digital camera so I didn’t waste time testing out the different functions and options. An advantage of using my own digital camera is that it turns on relatively quickly which enabled me to take a lot of photos quickly. This didn’t allow me to waste any time. A drawback of using a digital camera is that it could’ve had a few extra effects or functions available to enable me to test them before editing them in Photoshop.

 

 

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

 

When I started the preliminary task I had no skills or knowledge of using InDesign or any of the other programs listed in Question 6. Having little understanding of how to use the software’s in the preliminary task meant I produced a student magazine of which I was not proud of - I feel as though I didn’t put my full potential and ability into the task and I produced a poor quality piece of work. When it came to start producing the main task I felt increasingly more confident as I had been taught many new features and I had watched many videos on YouTube explaining how to do certain things on InDesign. I have learnt how to make my practical work look more professional by asking my target audience what they think and doing my own research into what indie/pop magazines look like and what content they feature.

During my preliminary task I did little research and this didn’t help me in analysing my magazine pages. I did more research for my indie music magazine which helped me with designing and constructing my magazine as I knew the forms and conventions of indie magazines, as well as what the layout should be like. The preliminary task contained no continuity and the layout was unprofessional, the key conventions were all over the place and it looked very complex. The magazine I produced for my main task looked more professional as I stayed with only a few colours to create a sense of simplicity and continuity throughout my magazine (green, white, black). The general conventions were placed more appropriately in my music magazine as I knew what would look best as I had done a lot more research, for example, my images on my contents page were placed far more appropriately as they were next to the relevant information.

I also spent more time on the photography aspect of my music magazine as I feel the photographs are what draw the readers in (it’s the hook that 70% of people buy magazines based on). I learnt how to make my photographs look more appealing to my target audience – I used a proper digital camera to take the photographs and I used a spotlight with the images with a white/negative background. In the live photographs I focused on how my models were being represented. In the (long-shot) central image featured on my double page spread, the model looks slightly moody, but in the bottom left hand corner, in the secondary image, the same model is smiling/laughing. This is because I wanted to beat stereotypes of ‘indie’/hipster people, people assume they are moody or in a bad mood all the time. I beat the stereotype as I showed that she is happy and can have a good time.

Draft of Main Task Evaluation

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

The key conventions of a music magazine are the masthead, brand identity, splash, barcode and price, house style, coverlines, central image, streamline, mode of address, articles trailed, pug, puff and a headline. The front cover of a magazine has to include a central image, a masthead, a headline and splash is common, coverlines are too. A typical contents page has a masthead, a list-like format of the contents (the most important things the magazine is featuring or what the writers think the public will enjoy most), a few images relating to the contents on the contents page, page numbers of the most important things the magazine is featuring. A typical double page spread in a music magazine contains an article or interview of an artist of band. A main image, large amounts of text, the masthead, a title and secondary images are commonly featured on a double page spread.

 

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

The social group I have represented is mainly teenagers to young adults who are interested in the indie/pop music. I have represented them by including photos and images in my magazine of that particular social group. I feel as though I’ve tried to represent them in an alternative way which reflects a more emergent ideology. I have used more pictures than text I think, except for the Double Page Spread - my research stated that the DPS pages contain more text than images.

 

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

Referring back to my Student Pitch I can see that some indie/pop magazines are run by the magazine themselves. For example, The Wire’s publisher is The Wire Magazine LTD (a private limited company) which has been run independently since December 2000. I would not be able to do this with my magazine as it’s newly available in the market - I wouldn’t have the right resources or skills to provide advertisement for the magazine in order for it to sell well. Dazed and Confused is another indie magazine, but is published by Waddell Limited. It’s a niche publishing company. I think they would like to distribute and publish my magazine as, although it’s fairly similar to to Dazed and Confused, it has certain aspects about it which Dazed and Confused doesn’t have. For example, my magazine offers reviews of old and upcoming new artists, how the readers can get involved.

 

4. Who would be the audience for your magazine?

I feel as though the gender would be mainly female and the age range can vary from 16-30 but more specifically 18-24 year olds. My audience would be quite alternative and appeal to a nice market. Their education could vary from college/sixth form to early work - this means that their annual income could be quite low or average, meaning that their disposable income would be low, so the price of my music magazine would have to be fairly cheap so my audience would be able to afford it. They would enjoy fairly cheap magazines full of content appealing to them. My alternative audience’s interests would be photography, fashion and creative arts. The music my audience would listen to would be indie/alternative artists and bands like The Pretty Reckless, The 1975, Lana Del Rey, The xx, The Neighbourhood, Mayday Parade, Two Door Cinema Club and Royal Blood.

 

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my target audience by producing an eye-catching front cover to draw them in, 70% of people buy magazines on the spur of the moment so the front cover is a very important aspect. In my planning and research I came up with a list of possible names for my magazine, after a while I finally decided upon EXPLORE. I chose this firstly because of it’s nature, when you see this name you instantly think of something adventurous and inspiring and it can be interpreted in many ways. The distance between the letters of EXPLORE is called tracking and the use of a single command word creates a sense of simplicity. The use of the capital letters for EXPLORE creates emphasis and excitement as the letters are bolder and larger than lowercase letters - they stand out to the viewer more and they can easily find the title they’re looking for in a magazine stand if the masthead is bold and easily readable.

            The colour scheme on my front cover is quite dark but it contains elements of greenery which connotes the adventurous side of the magazine. The word explore, to me, connotes the colour green, this symbolism is continued throughout the magazine as my masthead is of that colour. The colour green is quite striking and would stand out to the viewers.

            I used a variety of fonts suitable to my magazine to appeal to the mark scheme for the main task. The fonts I used were candara, MoolBoran, Ebrina, Sakkal Majalla, Hobo Std and Plantagenet Cherokee. The fonts I used were mainly sans-serif (characters without handles) as my research stated that many indie music magazines didn’t have these ‘handles’ on the end of characters as it felt to formal for their magazine. In my planning I noticed that the magazines I researched had a large amount of space between the letters in a word or sentence; this is called tracking. I wanted to continue the use of tracking in my magazine so I used it on my magazine pages.

            Throughout my magazine I kept all my images relatively the same, they were all edited in Photoshop using levels, saturation, curves, balance and many more techniques. They were all in colour and some were taken outside, and some in a studio with a blank background. This creates a contrast and allows the readers to see both sides of the magazine.

            The mode address, the way in which the magazine speaks to the reader, is fairly informal which can be linked to the genre of the music magazine. Spoken in a relaxed and chilled way allows the reader to feel more connected to the person speaking (especially if it’s on the double page spread - the reader can create a connection with the article).

 

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

The technologies I have used are Blogger (to post my blog posts), InDesign (to create and produce my music magazine), Photoshop (to edit the photos featured in my magazine), SlideShare (to create presentations of my music magazine) and a digital camera (to take the photos for my magazine). I already had many strengths in using all of these technologies as I used them in creating my preliminary task, but I now have a greater understanding of how to use InDesign as I have been introduced to many new features such as tracking, kerning, drop cap, the bleed line, baseline and many other features of the InDesign software.

 

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

When I started the preliminary task I had no skills or knowledge of using InDesign or any of the other programs listed in Question 6. Having little understanding of how to use the softwares in the preliminary task created a student magazine of which I was not proud of - I feel ad though I didn’t put my full potential and ability into the task and I produced a poor quality piece of work. When it came to start producing the main task I felt increasingly more confident as I had been taught many new features and I had watched many videos on YouTube explaining how to do certain things on InDesign. I have learnt how to make my practical work look more professional by asking my target audience what they think and doing my own research into what indie/pop magazines look like and what content they feature.