EvaluationOf Magazine:

‘music mag’

By Jennifer Fulo Pinchbeck

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

For my music magazine I decided to take into consideration forms and conventions from my research. For my front cover an NME cover of Rihanna inspired me. I found that it was useful for the image and colour scheme to match. Therefore as I chose specific blue and pink colours my photo on the cover would have to have colours relating to that to fit in. For example I made sure the pinkish and blue lighting at the gig was available so the photograph would have slight shades of pink and blue on it. I have also stuck to the colour scheme in my font to make certain pieces of text stand out more but still making the overall look co-ordinated at the same time.I also decided my band as the double page spread should also be on the front cover as the magazine featuring Rihanna also showed her in theirs. As the band are a style icon they needed to match the style/ stereo type of audience I was looking for. Therefore the pop/rock band fit great.

NME have a big bold font, for mine I decided to go big and bold but not too bold as I needed it to fit with the style of my magazine. I also would of used capitals but as I was reaching out to 16-25 year olds I made it lower case to show a less formal design. My fonts I used fonts I used for my mast head/title include ‘emotion engine’ and ‘Music elements’ for the music symbols . I followed the idea of od adding a lure. Like the ‘special edition’ in NME, mine is a free poster of the band inside which is shown by an eye grabbing banner across the bottom. I noticed that Rihanna’s name is in capitals and bold along with other important titles of contents on the page. Therefore I did the same to make it more eye grabbing showing the audience what is the most interesting information in my magazine. The bar code is usually found on the bottom of the magazine as it is the least important to the customer and the date and price at the top as it is important for when buying.

For my contents page the ‘Kerrang’ contents page influenced my decisions. I liked how they layered a few photos and slanted a few pictures. This inspired me to have my contents page with pictures slanted which fit in with my pop/rock style and target audience. I also found from my research that the main interest, the double page spread is usually made to attract the audience more as it is the main piece of interest. Therefore like the top image in kerrang; I decided to make my double page spread image the largest compared to the rest. Again I kept consistency with the font for my title of contents and also included the music symbols. This ensures the style/ theme of magazine is kept through out the magazine. Another thing that stays the same through out is the background as it adds to the theme and consistent style.

Like the magazine cover, I kept my sub titles and sub text the same colours but by one size made ‘About The Band’ section larger. This is to make a slightly greater impact on the audience compared to the rest as well as keeping in style. The page numbers are shown after every sub-title to show what page the information is on and also for ease of finding out the information. I add photos that included a variety of different people/ things relative to the information text next to them. Majority of the photos are taken with a white back ground to make the person/people in them stand out. However an action shot of main band shows the gig event they performed at and adds greater interest. Similar to the large event photo in the Kerrang magazine. This is where my idea came from of using the large picture to show the main information. I decided to add the page numbers after the sub titles instead before them as they are not as important as the titles and you will be able to see them after the sub titles so it gives you the page number after you know what to look for.

The main Idea I took from this double page spread of the vaccines is the structure of the overall two pages. It is sectioned into thirds, 2/3rds being the large image and 1/3rd being the text. I tried to add that structure to my double page spread but I found my image wouldn’t carry the same idea to stop at 2/3rds before having the text next to it. Therefore I had to fill the entire page with my image and add my text in between the large gap between the two guitarists. I added the page tittle with the same title font I used for the other titles. This keeps my consistency along the with colours being used in my banner of ‘fourth wall’ across the top of the page. I again stuck with my idea of the tilted images and banners to fit in with my target audience stereo type that associate pop/rock music.

In both top corners I added the page numbers to make it easy for my audience to find the pages faster by flicking through the magazine top corners. I also decided to follow the common idea of making the first letter of the paragraph very large. This gives a more interesting and eye grabbing effect to make the audience draw their eye to the first sentence and carry on reading. I put my writing into paragraphs to make it easier for my audience to read and to show the question I asked Fourth Wall and the answer I got back. The last paragraph is nearly always a conclusion or rounding off sentence so I decided to give information about there supposedly next give and tickets etc.For my image I used the smudging tool to make my image look more interesting as well as fit in more with the design I set.

Question 2:How does your media product relate to particular social groups?

Well known artist composes music relating to the pop/ rock culture. Also his sense of style relates to the out going style of pop. His overall status and image will be a good attraction for my audience.

In capitals famous band name with pop/rock culture.

Poster edited style relates the rebellious nature of the themed picture featuring the main attraction band, Fourth Wall. The way the band are dressed suggests the status and rebellious nature the band are trying to portray theirs selves as. This image relates to my target audience’s stereo type of 16-25 year olds.

Having a freebie is always a plus but the fact the freebie is of a poster of a very well known band makes it a better lure for my target audience. Posters of music icons are stereo typically seen in a teen or very young adults bedroom therefore the poster will more likely to be used by my target audience.

The lower case letters in my mast head suggest a less formal language which relates to my target audience. Also the retro style suggests a futuristic/ modern feel which relates to my younger generation audience.

My Rich bold colour scheme relate to the youth pop culture stereo type that are my target audience. Bold pink and blue relates both to females and males.

Knew and exciting instruments are a plus to read about in my magazine as pop/rock culture usually maintains instruments especially guitars. Therefore knowing what the next new/ exciting instruments out there are can help to the attitude of my target audience stereo type. A new instrument can change a persons image and style to keep ‘cool’ to 16-25 year olds.

How clothes are worn and poses suggest a certain style of rebellion a ‘bad boy’ image which can be seen as cool to my audience stereo type.

Large image of a well known band straight away attracts and makes my audience relate to it due to its style, music and attitude.

Again the pose suggests a style of attitude portrayed that will relate to the attitudes of 16-25 year olds.

Females ‘celebrities’ as well as male show relation to the female side of pop rock culture as well as males. My audience girl or boy can relate to the interviews in a personal way as interviews show personal opinions and influence the audience but also by who the known celebrity is and their gender.

Slanted title and banner stay with the theme structure and are used to portray a non formal design that appears more exciting to my target audience of 16-25 year olds.

Performance image gives the audience a feel of the atmosphere at the event the image was taken at. This relates to the concert/ gig atmosphere relating to my audience which makes my audience want to go see the band.

The smudge tool I used creates a warp outer design creating a funky new design that makes the image more interesting for my younger audience. This also keeps the non formal design of the magazine.

Question 3: what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I would distribute my magazine with IPC. This is as majority of my research is from NME and it has been the biggest inspiration towards my magazine. I think IPC would distribute my magazine even though they distribute pop/rock magazines like mine. This is as my magazine looks into the music industry slightly differently compared to NME the main reason being it featuring new instruments and looking at the top celebrities of the month rather than other social events.

Question 4:Who will be the audience for your media product?

My magazine research contains a survey and an interview with my target audience of 16-25 year olds.From my magazine research I found out what males and females of certain ages are interested in to help shape my magazine. From my survey research:“Q2: 2/3 are aged 16- 18, 1/3 are aged 18-25 Q3: types of magazines read were: NME, pop, Cosmopolitan. recommended read magazines were science magazines. however a music recommend magazine was Rolling Stones..Q4: information relevant, pop , celebrities are all the favourite things about their favourite magazines.”

My audience for my media product will be 16-25 year olds that are interested in the pop rock culture as my magazine contains celebrities well known in the pop/rock industry.

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

I addressed my audience in ways that attract my target audience’s stereo type. The stereo type attitude being youth/ teenage rebellious attitude that follow celebrities influences and is associated non-formality.

I still made my magazine using professional standards but still with a slight touch of non formal attitude to it.This is done in a variety of ways such as:Using lower case latters on the title to show a non formal youth attitude. I used a retro style of font for my title as it makes the title look more futuristic fitting with my younger generation audience.The bold colours I used attract both male and female audience’s. The banner across the front attracts and informs the audience about a free poster before making them want to buy it as well the two images of the band on the front cover. I used the A.I.D.A. technique. (Attract, Inform, Desire, Action) This technique usually influences my target audience to buy my magazine from desiring to read it which is set by my attractions and information set.

The well known band Fourth Wall are an attraction point for my audience therefore they are placed on the front cover contents and the main double page spread. As this band is new and the latest gossip in the pop rock industry my target audience will want to know more about them. By adding the latest instruments, the best solo artists and insiders about other celebrities this magazine gives fresh information every month. This will make my audience want to read my magazine as they will want to know the main information about the pop rock music industry every month. I added word such as; ‘Latest, worlds best, Top 5, Hottest and Exclusive’ to emphasise the information making it more by valuable and attractive to my audience along with making it bolder and bigger to stand out. I also added a lot of photos for each section to make my magazine look more packed with exciting information.In my double page spread I added an exclamation mark after the title to make the information more exciting and put my text into short paragraphs so its easier to read as well as to identify the Question and personal answer from the well known celebrity band.

Question 6:What have you learnt about technology in the process of constructing this product?

I have used a lot of technology that has helped with my convergence of my construction.I have used:• Photoshop used to edit images to make them appropriate as well as to add special/ cool

effects to my magazine and images to enhance its presentation as well as for the use of non-linear editing.

• Tools I have used:- Brush- for adding or reducing colour in different shapes and sizes.- Smudge tool- I used this a lot for smudging different images / colours together this is how I

made my back ground design and effects on my pictures.- Crop-this tool aloud me to crop my images making them fit better within my work as well

as look better by making sure there’s not too much white background and that what I have taken picture of is in the middle.

- Type tool- this tool aloud me to type my text such as my paragraphs, banner text, contents and titles.

- Ctrl + Shift Resizing tool- this tool aloud me to resize my images and also by making the resizing guide visible you can also rotate the image. By pressing Ctrl + Shift before resizing the image will keep its proportion no matter what size I decided to have it.

- Rectangle tool- this tool aloud me to select rectangles of different sizes and delete or move them.

- Shape tool- through a selection of shapes I could choose a shape that I can adjust and add to my work. E.g. my front cover banner.

- Blending Options – by right clicking on a specific layer I could edit the style of the layer; making it more or less : 3D, embossed, Textured and a range of other similar options. This tool helped me to create a more professional look especially with my titles.

- Layering- This technique is helpful as I could edit a layer above or underneath another without editing any other layers. Depending on the order I put my layers it will show my layers in that order one on top of the other. Therefore for a certain image to be on top of a specific image I will have to make sure my layers are all in the right order.

- Hand tool- used to drag/ move objects around at ease.- Zoom I used this tool to see my work from far away as well as close up as it is important to

see what my work looks like from different point of views.

• Software: Paint for print screens, Microsoft Word for structure draft of magazine, Photoshop for editing.

• www.wordpress.com for distributing my research, post production, and production of my magazine.

• Internet: I used this for finding my font as well as for using Wordpress.com. I got two fonts that I used on my magazine from a website called dafont.com. This was useful as it emphasised the quality of my work and made my magazine more professional looking along with the tools I used in Photoshop.

• Survey monkey website- used to make a short survey for my target audience. And distributed on a social networking site (Facebook)

• Voice Recorder-used to record primary research interview.

• Hotmail- for transporting images online.• USB stick: used for ease of transporting work to be

continued on other computers also used for a place to save work.

• USB cable used for transporting images from my camera as well as phones to computers.

• Camera’s I have used my own Photography camera (Fuji) as well as a college camera (Cannon) which are both with compatible lenses.

• SD cards used to save and transport images taken from my camera.

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

Looking back to my task to make a college magazine cover and contents to now I feel I have learnt a lot more about magazines. For example, In my college magazine cover I had not set a proper colour scheme and just worked with the colours I had from my image to make a rainbow style theme. I have learnt from my research about, structure, styles, themes, how to attract certain stereo types of audiences to get your target audience, different types of languages that suit different audiences and what attract my target audience, Etc.I have learnt that to plan your magazine starting from Primary and secondary research you can avoid making mistakes and also be influenced by similar magazines to create your own. For example the colour scheme I picked was inspired by an NME front cover as well as knowing that my colours link with my target audience. I have also learnt that the more organised you are the faster the development of your production is. By being more organised I have been able to create a more professional style and production plan giving me the tools and equipment I need at the right times. In my preliminary task I did not do any in depth research or Post production, therefore I did not have anything to follow.

Things I have learnt in the three different sections of making my magazine.

Research:Audience Research:I have learnt to how to gain research from my audience in many ways using primary and secondary research. I have used Survey MonkeyAnd Interviews to gain primary information which is specific to my magazine ideas. For secondary research I researched in depth other magazines in the U.K. and who a few of my interest are published by. This has given me many influences to my ideas for my magazine plan.I did market research to give me an idea where I want my magazine to be sold, who publishes is, how much for and when.

Post Production:Planning:For my planning unlike my preliminary task I did a drafts of my idea and how it the structure of the magazine would look.I designed my own designs so that it can be copy writed and nobody could copy my individual style. E.g. my mast head.I planned when and where I would take my photographs and also what equipment I will need and when as well as where my source is from so I can notify my source in time and be ready to use what I need as well as my models when I want.To top it all off I made a pitch idea and presented it to my peers along with colour schemes, other ideas and structures and gained feedback to help me make the right decisions for my planning.

Production:For production I used specific software to create my magazine.I hade to use specific tools and skills mainly mentioned in Question 6 .For example: I had to learn how to transfer images online and edit images on Photoshop. I experimented with my original ideas and developed them into something better than what I had originally planned. E.g. I originally planned to have a plain coloured background. As for me it was too amateur looking and didn’t match the standards of a professional magazine I decided to add different shades of the colour scheme and blend it all together to create a swirly background.

If I was to do it again I would definatly do my research and post production in depth a gain as it helped a lot in my production. I would make sure I did a more detailed survey that would link more to my ideas for my magazine as well as what my audience think of others. The main thing I have learnt is the importance of timing and planning. The more Research and planning you do the easier the production will be.