AS MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATION:

MUSIC MAGAZINEBy Shannon Haines

Developing and challenging conventions

On my magazine front cover I used typical conventions which you are highly likely to see on a real magazine.

For my mast head I took inspiration from the music magazine Billboard, I called my magazine Beat and I filled the gaps in the letters with colour to help my mast head to stand out and catch the eye of my target audience.

I also placed my mast head in the top left hand corner which is typical of any magazine but I stretched mine the whole way across because the font I chose was bold and would fit the length of the page.

- FRONT COVER

Developing and challenging conventions

Then for my front cover image I used a mid shot which tends to be the most popular camera shot for a cover image.

This is because the shot focuses on the face and makes she star easily recognisable it also includes enables the buyers to see the fashion and style of the star.

For my cover image the clothing is important as the type of clothes that she is wearing represents the genre of my magazine which is pop/RnB.

My cover image also has direct eye contact with the potential buyers which helps to immediately grab the attention of my audience and engages the reader.

Developing and challenging conventionsHEADLINEFor my headline I used a large bold font so that it stood out to my audience and grabbed their attention I chose the colour white and put a shadow on the text so that it would stand out against the colour on my image.

COVERLINES I used bold font for most of the text on my front cover as I wanted it to stand out against my image and catch the eye of my potential buyers But for the text such as ‘who dat’ I used curly font and made the text red so that it would stand out over the bold font but not overpower it or blend in with it either. I also used curly font and red colour for the text ‘win’ as I wanted this to stand out to the readers and make them want to buy it by bribing them with free stuff.

BASELINEI also included names of artists that will also be featured in my magazine on the baseline as the articles are less important but it shows the amount of content that the magazine has inside, making the audience feel like it is worth buying.

Developing and challenging conventions- CONTENTS PAGE

For my contents page my ideas and inspiration came from a billboard contents page a I liked the layout of the images and the title (Contents) and it caught my eye and straight away made me want to read more into the magazine. The images that I used were all images of articles included on my contents page and they are all of a similar genre of music.

On the red rectangle below my title I chose to write the issue number and volume of the magazine, as this is not very important and not many people will want to read it but it is also vital that it is included.

I used the traditional layout of a contents page and I put all my articles at the left hand side of the page as this is typical as we read from left to write so it will be the first place that the readers will look.

Developing and challenging conventionsFor my double page spread I used the typical conventions of one that you would see in a real magazine. I organised my text into columns which is what you always see in a double page spread as it is easy and looks like less writing so the reader doesn’t get put off. For my title (Wild Child) I placed it really large but on the right hand side of my page as the image takes up a full page. For the word ‘Wild’ I used red colour to match the hair and lips of my image. I also made the font of this curly so that it stands out against the other word, Being ‘Child’, as the font of that one is bold and in black matching the stripes on her checked shirt. Both of these words stand out but in their own way, each not taking the spotlight off of the other. I chose the colour scheme of red as red is a eye catching colour and draws attention to the article. I also made an introductory paragraph at the beginning of my article tointroduce my artist this is a typical convention used in most articles on double page spreads.I took inspiration from the pretty reckless double page spread for my head line as I thought it stood out really well and caught my attention and for the image I took inspiration from the Florence photo shoot as the glitter stands out and my model looks abit like Florence.

REPRESENTATION

For my magazine I chose to base it on the pop/RnB genre of music. This is represented on my magazine in lots of different ways taking inspiration from different music magazines what have the same genre or similar genre of music as mine. On my front cover I based my cover image on a typical pop/RnB artist (Iggy Azalea) For the costume of my cover model I used typical clothing to fit that genre Bright pink Jumper and a Black leather jacket, also similar to the clothes the star I based my cover model on wears.

From my questionnaire results the most popular answer for the question ‘What genre of music do you think this mast head represents?’ were both pop and RnB. This shows that the font of my mast head represented the genre of my magazine, I feel that this was an important aspect as it is the first thing that potential buyers will see and this could determine whether or not the audience purchase your magazine.

INSTITUTIONSThe media institution that i would want to distribute my media product is Bauer as this is a massive distributer, largest privately owned publishing group in Europe, in the music magazine industry so Bauer is really well known and popular. This institution distributes magazines such as Kerrang and Q.

Bauer has no magazines like mine with the genre of pop/RnB that they are currently distributing as most of the magazines are a rock genre. So I’d be adding a new genre to the institution therefore making them more money as they would be reaching a wider audience because my magazine offers a genre of music they’ve never released before.

Bauer is a worldwide media empire, with magazines distributed to over 15 different countries, therefore this would help with the distribution of my product.The company also has its own radio station and has magazines online, This would be a big opportunity for my magazine as they would be able to broadcast RnB music on their channel from my magazine genre helping their market to widen and grow and also helping to advertise and help distribute my magazine.

TARGET AUDIENCEThe target audience for my magazine is for both male and female ages between ‘15-25’,My magazine would be distributed mainly in the UK and the US so my audience would be British and American.

I Targeted students like myself as I know what people my age enjoy reading about and I found that it would be easy to base my magazine on something that I also enjoyed.I kept my magazine quite short but I also made sure that it wasn’t too short as people wouldn’t want to spend money on something that didn’t have much content as it would be a waste of money.

I also made sure that my actual articles inside were not too long as people this age may get bored easily and like to read things that look shorter than they are, which is why I did my double page spread article in columns as this makes the text look like less.

Also on my magazine I made the writing formality of my article quite formal but not too formal as then it wouldn’t appeal to my target audience I didn’t make it too informal either because then it would make the magazine seem to young and make the writer seem quite uneducated.

ATTRACTING AN AUDIENCETo attract an audience I used various different colours, fonts, Cover lines and featured artists. For the main colours on my front cover I stuck to three colours Red, White and black as these colours are typical of a music magazine as red is a bright colour and the most popular one to catch the eye of a potential purchaser also these colours all stood out the best against my cover image. My feature artists were popular to those of the genre, Charli xcx, Avril Lavigne, Paramore.My image is a midshot these type of shot is supposed to show the face and a bit of the body of a person. This shot immediately grabs buyers attention as the cover star is easily recognisable and will catch fans eyes. The cover lines are bold and they stand out against my image and they catch passer-by's attention as they are popular bands and artists. Also the word ‘win’ on the front cover is eye catching and in red, it is vital that this stands out on my magazine as this is a great way to get people to purchase and is almost like a bribe.

TECHNOLOGIESTo take my images for my magazine I used a canon camera. The camera took high quality images and has 16 megapixels, also because of the quality of the images I took being so high I did not have to alter them much as they were almost perfect when I took them. I used Photoshop to then edit my images as it is the best programme to edit on and it is what all the best media companies and magazines use to edit images. I also used it to construct my cover lines and edit them by using stroke effect to make them stand out more against my front image. I used the internet to research different magazine covers, Contents pages and double page spreads for inspiration and ideas. I used publisher to edit text onto my magazine contents page and I did my double page spread on publisher but edited my image on Photoshop I matted my cover models face so that she wasn’t shiny and I also removed her spots and the background.I used a computer to do all my work on such as my blog on blogger, Photoshop, publisher and to do all of my research.

SKILL IMPROVEMENTLooking back at my preliminary task I feel that I have learnt a lot in the progression when I compare my final piece now and then. At the beginning I wasn’t very good at editing the image or even taking it. For my image I used a Long shot and this wasn’t appropriate for a magazine image as you could see all the scenery around my cover model which didn’t look very professional. My skills have definitely improved in taking the photos as my one that I have for my final cover now looks professional and like one you would see in a real magazine. On Photoshop my skills have improved a lot from when I started using it at the beginning. The fonts that I chose for my preliminary task were really bad and didn’t really fit my genre of magazine where as the ones that I have chose now match the genre of my music magazine and look a lot better than they did at the beginning. My skills of recognising what works best for the layout of my magazine from the beginning as I’ve changed a lot as my skills have progressed. Also my skills for applying the conventions such a shaving the mast head in the top left hand corner or stretch all the way across the top and having a mid shot for your front cover image which I didn’t use for my preliminary task.