Evaluation

AS MediaFoundation PortfolioMusic Magazine Log BookVlads Putjatins

Before I could start the production of my music magazine I had to research into already existing music magazines and analyse their house style and the layout in order to produce a successful product in addition to this I also had to look at how different genres are interpreted in music magazines. For my research task I have chosen the Q magazine this is due to the wide range of genre it has to offer which would appeal to a wide range of audience meaning it has an existing audience which would be familiar with their house style and the design.This research would help me decide on what type of house style I should use for my magazine and how I should arrange all the ‘puffs’ and ‘buzz words’ on my front cover.

Research task (analysing an existing music magazine)

Analysing the Front Cover of a Music MagazineThe following image is a front cover of a music magazine from which we can get a basic idea of what ‘Exclusive’ and ‘Exciting’ is going to be featured in this magazine. For example ’10 Exclusive Interviews’ with the most known and famous music stars which are presented in red, standing out and largest font in bright red colour in order to attract the audience’s attention if they are interested in any of the following music stars. From this the audience can gather that the magazine features ten articles which give them a variety of choice if they had dislike for other music stars. Target audience for the magazine would be teenagers or people aged from 18 to 26 which are interested in music fashion. This impression can be gathered from the house style of the magazine, the use of contrast colours make the writing stand out in order to enlighten the audience of what is going to be present in the magazine. Furthermore the choice of main articles to place on the cover page are a range from new music stars to older which means that the target audience would get lured in by the music stars which they are more familiar in their age group.

Direct mode of address in order to engage with the reader, to gain an informal relationship with the audience seeing as they are wearing casual clothes meaning they are not looking for business but possibly just for a chat. On the front cover we have three different music stars which represent different genre of music, which could indicate the variety of genre this magazine has to offer for the audience. Additionally because there are ’10 exclusive interviews’ the central image shows the music stars from which the interviews have been take which makes it easier for the audience to who will be in the magazine without even reading the ‘buzz words’. Due to few artists being on the cover page we have 3 anchorage texts to go with the central image in addition to this the magazine relies on the audience to be familiar with the celebrities seeing as the text does not go in order with the position of the singers. However this could also have been done to show which celebrity is more popular compared to others which could explain why Jay-Z is in front of the ‘crew’.

Conventions of a Magazine Cover

Puffs

Title Block

Central Image

Buzz Words

Secondary Images

Barcode

Anchorage Text

Analysing the Content Page of a Music Magazine

The following magazine uses images throughout the two pages. Which have been constructed very carefully and kept to the whole house style of the magazine. Also the fact that Jay-Z covers the word ‘Content’ implies his importance for the magazine or even his dominance in world of music by this day. In addition to this we can see that on the left side there are celebrities present who were on the cover page along with another celebrity which indicates importance of these stars or their status over the celebrities on the right, being more popular or talked about at the time being. House style remains the same throughout the whole magazine and this helps keep attention of the audience which could be a different type of groups due to what was mentioned before the variety of celebrities the magazine has to offer. Main colours used for this music magazine are red, black and white only exception would be the images of celebrities which have different backgrounds however they are presented in front of the white background of the magazine in order to make them stand out.

Main information about a certain article is presented to the audience in black font colour however names of the articles are in bold and larger letters which help the audience keep focus of what is going on in the magazine. Additionally to this the contents page has images of featuring articles which are present in the magazine itself which gives the audience a taste of what they are going to read. Also the numbers indicating pages vary in size, this could have been used to indicate importance or excitement certain celebrities have over the others and even suggest exclusivity of the articles. The information is presented neatly and sharp in order for the audience to be able to keep up with the information the magazine has to offer in addition to this each image is labelled with a number for the audience to see which page their main interest is on. Use of contrast colours make it easy for the audience to follow what is going on in what may seem as a complex contents page however as the audience familiarises with the house style and design of the magazine it is very easy to follow.

Analysing the Article Page of a Music Magazine

The following magazine uses images throughout the two pages. Which have been constructed very carefully and kept to the whole house style of the magazine. Also the fact that Jay-Z covers the word ‘Content’ implies his importance for the magazine or even his dominance in world of music by this day. In addition to this we can see that on the left side there are celebrities present who were on the cover page along with another celebrity which indicates importance of these stars or their status over the celebrities on the right, being more popular or talked about at the time being. House style remains the same throughout the whole magazine and this helps keep attention of the audience which could be a different type of groups due to what was mentioned before the variety of celebrities the magazine has to offer. Main colours used for this music magazine are red, black and white only exception would be the images of celebrities which have different backgrounds however they are presented in front of the white background of the magazine in order to make them stand out. Main information about a certain article is presented to the audience in black font colour however names of the articles are in bold and larger letters which help the audience keep focus of what is going on in the magazine. Additionally to this the contents page has images of featuring articles which are present in the magazine itself which gives the audience a taste of what they are going to read. Also the numbers indicating pages vary in size, this could have been used to indicate importance or excitement certain celebrities have over the others and even suggest exclusivity of the articles. The information is presented neatly and sharp in order for the audience to be able to keep up with the information the magazine has to offer in addition to this each image is labelled with a number for the audience to see which page their main interest is on. Use of contrast colours make it easy for the audience to follow what is going on in what may seem as a complex contents page however as the audience familiarises with the house style and design of the magazine it is very easy to follow.

Research task (examining the institutions)

The ‘Bauer Media’ publishes a range of different genre magazines aimed at different type of audience. The website even sorts the magazines it publishes in different categories in order to make it easier for the audience to find a specific genre they are after and do further research of the magazine. For example ‘Men’s Entertainment’ category has a list of different magazines which follow this category, allowing the target audience to make further research of the magazines like ‘Empire’ ‘Kerrang’ and ‘Mojo’ which however can also be read by the female audience which would be interested in the genre of music the magazines may provide. Furthermore the website lists gossip magazines under the ‘Women’s’ section which is stereotypical suggesting that all females are interested in magazines like ‘heat’ and ‘more!’, however there is a range of magazines this institution provides giving the audience a variety of choice which is always good. Furthermore the simple layout of the website provides the audience with information of what type of entertainment the magazine has to offer for example TV or radio broadcasting. Brand image gives an impression to the audience of being a bold and serious company seeing as its mainstream and represent different types of media not only magazines.

Analysing different Title Blocks

NME (New Musical Express) is a music magazine with a rock/RNB genre which from the title suggests how it gives the latest news to the audience about the music industry. Furthermore from the use of colour we can tell that this music magazine has a formal layout and the house style would be the colour present on the title. Colour use of the title block makes it stand out due to use of contrasting colours, in addition to this the title block is never covered by the central image in order for the audience to see the title straight away and the colours used help it stand out from the magazines house style. Use of font for this title block is bold and straight forward which helps the colour contrast in addition to this the title looks like a channel title for example MTV or such which the audience would be familiar with. The title itself when spoken out sounds like ‘Enemy’ which evokes that the magazine is different from other music magazines and offers something entirely different in addition to this the word ‘Express’ suggests how the magazine delivers the latest news in short time seeing as most news papers would be called ‘Express’. Furthermore ‘New Musical Express’ sounds like a news paper which evokes how the magazine delivers the latest news like a news paper would do every morning. Target audience of the magazine would be people which are interested in the latest music news aging from 16 to 25, however even older audience could be interested in this music magazine if it suits their interests.

From the title of the magazine we can see that the genre would be rock based due to the use of dark colours and affect of shattered glass, in addition to this the sound ‘KERRANG’ evokes a noise caused from a guitar being smashed which also suggests how the magazine is non-formal meaning the audience would be of the same type. Use of colour in the title block makes the title very easy to read and the shattered glass effect makes it more interesting and standing out from other music magazine titles in addition to this the title look original due to its non-formality. The font used for the title block is different from other fonts you would see on music magazines and from it we can see that the main focus of the magazine is rock music where as other magazines like NME or Q have more range of genre to offer. The title itself suggests ‘rebellion’ or even violence due to the shattered glass effect and how the noise ‘KERRANG’ sounds like a smashed guitar, implying that rock is an expressive type of music. Target audience of the magazine would be people that are mainly interested in rock music aging from 16-25.

Planning my Music Magazine: Front Cover and the Contents Page

Planning my Music Magazine: Article Page

Designing my media product title block

Design 1

Design2

Design 3

In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media product?

The music magazine that I have produced is aimed at people aged from 16 to 23 seeing as they are the most likely to be interested in this type of genre however the problem with this target audience would be that they are more likely to check information about their music on the internet. After all the research was complete I have decided to follow the form of convention of a typical music magazine seeing as it’s the most common in music magazines and already has an existing audience, the problem with doing that however is that the audience would prefer to stick to something they are already familiar with like their old music magazines instead of reading newly published music magazines. This would mean that I have to lure the audience in by either adding a freebie or creating an article which would interest the audience and also make the magazine at a reasonable price. Furthermore the whole layout of the magazine is familiar to the ‘Q’ or ‘NME’ magazine or just a typical magazine, giving the audience the information about what to expect from the magazine by just looking at the cover and seeing as the first impression is important, the main ‘exclusive’ to the magazine articles/information are on the front cover.

Institution which would publish my music magazine would most likely be Bauer seeing as they publish magazines like ‘Q’, ‘Kerrang’ and ‘Mojo’ along with other 150 magazines. Seeing as those are three main music magazines which are popular with the audience with a rock genre present along with other genres (the more genres a magazine has the more audience would be interested). Seeing as my music magazine has a main rock genre it will have a lot of competition in that institution. Additionally the following institution publishes modern magazines and my target audience are most likely to be interested in more modern magazines.

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

How will my Music Magazine be appealing to my target audience?My music magazine would represents both male and femal young adults as well as teenagers, this is due to the chosen house style and the choice of rock bands which have been included into the magazine, seeing as my chosen target audience are most likely to listen to bands like ‘Linkin Park’ or ‘Three Days Grace’ due to the fact that they produce songs which could appeal to my target audience. However this might not always be the case due to the fact that people above the age of my target audience could also be interested in these rock bands and this is only a benefit because it means that more people are likely to buy my music magazine. Additionally the Linkin Park poster would be appealing to this particular social group because they are most likely to stick up posters of their favourite rock band in their rooms as we would not expect an adult to have posters around his/her room. In addition to this the images I have taken and placed into my music magazine would appeal to the group because the main artist on whom the article is based on is from that social group and the audience would be interested in someone from their social group. Also the design of the images and how the main star looks might further appeal to that social group because they are most likely to dress the same way. Also the manner in which the main star looks at the audience in an aggressive way may imply a rebellious personality which would be appealing to the social group due to the fact that they would be most likely to also act rebellious and the fact that the star was from the same group and has achieved something could influence the audience and even inspire them and think that with hard work they all can achieve the same.

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

For the main image I was going to use for my double page article, I have experimented with different effects in order to make the image stand out as much as possible and look attractive to the audience. In this case I have made it more bright by using the 'Curves' tool and experimenting with different levels of brightness

Additionally I have experimented with different 'Filter' effects which would make the image look more unique and appealing to the audience, due to a wide variety of effects available I had to try out every single one and pick which one would be the most effective to use in my magazine

By looking back at my preliminary task I believe I have made huge progress in not only production of a music magazine but also with the ideas behind certain layouts and chosen images how different meanings can be created through use of different angles and mise-en-scene. I have also greatly improved my skills in using programmes like Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator which helped me greatly in production and editing of my images and the magazine itself. Additionally from the research and comparing my final product to the preliminary task I have learned the importance of the structure of the magazine and the correct placement of certain ‘buzz words’ and ‘puffs’ and how the cover is most important to get the audience attention because it’s the first impression of a magazine that counts.

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