Research and Planning: Completed Music Magazine

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

Also I have thought about the posture of my models within the music magazine, and made them look as though they have an attitude, whereas there was no emotion shown by the models in the college magazine.

I learnt to cut out photographs for the music magazine and so was able to make images fit into the page, rather than just stick them on top of everything, which looks tacky.

I really considered font sizes and the uses of colour for my music magazine, as in the college magazine the fonts were hard to read and the green on black was unclear, yet the blue and white are very easy to read on the black in the music magazine, and the fonts are also much clearer.

Evaluation Question 6-What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

I used flickr in my evaluation so that I could talk about media distribution.

I used prezi in both my evaluation and my magazine development process, I included the title, positioning statement, price, where I wanted my magazine to be distributed etc.

I used photoshop to create my music magazine cover and contents page. This piece of software offered me everything I needed to create it and was quite simple to use.

I used the SLR camera's to take my pictures. This ensured that the picture quality would be excellent and very clear.

I used blogger to show the process I took to create my music magazine. Each lesson I would update my page and show what I'd done. This is good as it shows my progress throughout the last few months.

I used the iShowU software during this evaluation question so that I could record the other software used whilst creating my magazine. Also I used it to record me creating my interview questions for my double page spread.

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

How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience? on Prezi

evaluation: Question 4- who would be the audience for your media production? why?

 

This audience is often a student, so they would have a low budget, my magazine isn't very expensive to target this.

The shops they would like quite frequently sell merchandise, and even music, made by or representing bands very similar to those featured in my magazine, so the magazine may appeal to them.

The food they like is fast-food, low budget, and they would still have some money left over to cross the road from one of those restaurants and  buy a magazine.

The taste in music would feature bands of the same sound and scene as all those featured in Sound magazine, making it appeal to them very well.

The way this target of people socialise is through music mostly, so using music to target them in a magazine seems a sure-fire way to gain their interest.

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

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

Posture:  The posture of my model is similar to that of Corey Taylor, a laid back, cool look, right at the camera showing the artist has attitude and is also a relaxed person, similar to Corey Taylor who is famous for being known as 'The Nicest Guy In Rock'. Reflecting this style makes my artist seem very likeable.

Gesture:  Corey Taylor looks far more strong and over-worked than Chris, since he has done a lot more in his life and made a lot more success, Chris is just getting started in the industry and he seems to be pretty content, showing he likes the life he's made out of rock.

Angle:  Chris' image is a canted angle, which reflects the different slant that new rock has on everything else. Corey Taylor is at a very slight canted angle as well, though is not as noticeable, since I wanted my canted angle to be obvious.

Shot Type:  Both shots are medium close ups, to show the physical presence of the male figure, and to show the facial expressions very closely, as the attitudes are important of a musician in order to connect with their fans and be more three dimensional, rather than just being a poster model, they have a personality.

Lighting: There is similar lighting in both images, with light shining on the face of the two front-men to show that they are stars. Corey Taylor has a green tint and is not as bold an image as he is already a superstar in the rock industry, whereas my model is just getting noticed and so his face needs to be really bright so it can be seen and recognised again in the future. The image has to be memorable.

Costume:  Both models are wearing black, casual clothes. The black colours reflect the genre of rock music, and the casual look is also featured throughout similar magazines, such as Kerrang and Rocksound.

Expression: The expression of the artists in both images are calm, composed and content, making them seem very pleased with what they have done, which is important for a musician, as an artist who is pleased with their work is far more likely to be appealing to a fan-base than one who looks miserable and appears to dislike being involved in the industry.

Hair:  The hair of both men is very short, especially for a rock-star, however, they both look tough and moody, which is necessary for their image.

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

 

Use

I used a bold, grey font, which is a large focus at the top of the page for my title, just like the Rocksound one. This is because the grey colour fits in well with the genre of my magazine, and the large title makes it easy to see and recognise on a shelf for a buyer.

A large, dominating medium close up takes up the majority of the page as a recognised musician can be a selling tool in Rocksound, so my musician is made to look a star too, just like Cristina Scabbia is on the cover in the image above.The reason for this shot is to show the face of a star, while making him stand out, which is what a great musician should do.

The small image in the corner of my cover is to show the extra content featured, and is noticeable, since it is at the top of the page, even though it is small.

The list of bands featured are listed either side of the page in order to show what can be found inside the magazine.

Develop

My font is a similar, bold style, however I used a broken, rugged style to make the magazine look edgy and new, bacause it is a new rock music magazine, and this reflects the attitude.

 The colours of black and white within my magazine work well, however the yellow doesn't look rough enough so I used blue in order to create a moody effect.

 In listing the artists inside my magazine I decided to use two stronger colours, rather than white and a very similar shade of yellow, like in Rocksound. My significant alternating colours makes the artists stand out more, whereas I feel the Rocksound cover makes them look plain and very insignificant.

Challenge

 My artist has a very laid back look about him, showing he is very calm and chilled out, completely unlike Cristina Scabbia's fierce, fighting pose. This is to show the complete different direction my music magazine goes compared to the attitude of Rocksound. Also, it is reflected in the article on the double page spread about this artist, it being very focused on how relaxed he is.

Use 

The large, leading image at the top of the page is used to bring instant attention to an artist and get fans excited about it. 

The boxes around the subheadings are used within my magazine to make the text clearer, as the font is bold and would be difficult to read without them. 

The personal editor's note takes up the space of an entire column, just like in Kerrang to keep a personal connection with readers, showing them that they are valued by the magazine.

The banner which reads 'Sound this week' is very similar and is used to keep a consistent style within the rock magazine genre and can be recognised in every edition of my magazine. 

Develop

The editor's not is the last thing on my page, and is situated on the right hand side of the page, at the bottom. This is because the music is what comes first in Sound magazine, and the note, even though important, is far less significant than all the music-related information.

Challenge

The editor's note on my page is very different to all the rest of the content, and so is more noticeable, which is important to gain the interest of the reader.

Use

I used the large image of the artist featured in the artcile to fill up a whole page as it fits in with the style of rock magazines.
The stance of the model is the same, with a tilted neck, to show attitude, as both of the articles ae about cool, relaxed guys.

Develop

The image of the model is on the left page in Kerrang, however I have put my model on the right, causing focus to be more on the article than the artist.

The two colours in the article's fonts are repeated, however instead of alternating the colours of paragraphs, I used one colou for a subheading, and the other for the actual infomation in that section.

The title, situated at the top of the page is more structured in position in my magazine, to repeat what is on the pother pages of my magazine. Also, it is similar in the way it is very personal and informal, which is how rock magazines connect with their audience.

Challenge

The article about the AFI frontman is grey and not very bold in colour, my article has strong, bold colours, with the dark black page reflecting the dark moody style of the magazine. White is still used to link with the calmness of the article though.

The white dots around the border of the page in Kerang is not repeated in  my work, as it adds no value to my work, since Dave Brash is not an established star, and is instead a young, new name looking to get his band noticed.

Research and Planning: Finished Music magazine work

Research and Planning: Update on progress

Research and Planning: Contents comparison at this stage

I am looking at the to contents pages, the development of mine and the established Kerrang magazine.
I like the influences I've taken from the having the editor's not at the side at the bottom of the page, though I moved it to the right rather than the left, which was done because I didn't want it to be as much of a focus.
For the same reason I did not use a picture of the editor, as that draws more attention than I would've liked.
The large image at the top of the page, below the header influenced my positioning of images here, with me having two rather than one, as a new music magazine cannot feature just one artist as they do not have the existing fan-base to be the centre of attention and draw such a large focus.

Research and Planning: Music Magazine update

After receiving feedback I discovered my Research and Planning doesn't feed clearly enough into my magazine.
I decided I wanted to make the front cover look more like ROCKSOUND magazine.

 

My cover now looks like this:

 

The huge main image is copied, as well as the layout of text and band names at the side. My colours have kept to the blue style however, rather than the yellow that Rocksound has mixed with white. The grey heading is also now featured in my magazine.

Research and Planning: Completed Music Magazine

Research and Planning: Update on progress

 

The model features in a variety of shots and settings here, in order to look different, a key focus of rock music.

 

The models here are of the main model, and two others who are both rockers. Vicky is significantly less rock, however her image fits in with the article, about songwriting, and she looks as though she is dressed to do work.

 

Here I have used my main model dressed like this both to show the dark colour and setting, and the blue and white ties in with the magazine style.

The model does look a little like a football fan, however he is wearing a Lostprophets hoodie and stares at the camera, looking aggressive.

Research and Planning: Update on progress

I need to modify texts and make them the correct size as well as adding content to the double page spread. I am very happy with the colour scheme working so well continuously, and the images of the NO FEAR brand name and blue/white colour in Chris' images ties in well with the magazine.

Research and Planning: what I've done so far, Music magazine

Research and Planning: Actor Release Forms