Evaluation part 7
I have learnt that photograph’s play a very important role in a magazine and the credibility it has. In my preliminary task I designed the front cover for a school magazine; the photograph that I took was inside of a school, this was appropriate for my preliminary. However from my research I learnt that most front covers have blank backgrounds to make it easier to put writing over the top.
Also in the photograph the image of the person is very important. In my preliminary I used my friend just dressed in her normal college clothes. However it would’ve made more sense for her to be in school uniform, as it was a school magazine. In my actual task I was very specific with what my models could wear in order to stay within keeping with my magazine style.
I also learnt that logo’s as very important. Most magazine’s have very simple logo’s with the name of the magazine but in a specific font. My preliminary front cover design just had the name of the magazine without any recognisable logo; therefore I made sure my actual magazine had its own logo.
Colour schemes also seem to be extremely important in magazines. All of the magazines in my research kept to 3 or 4 colours. In my preliminary I just used colour that I though would look good, therefore I learnt that I had to keep to some set colours in order to make it more eye catching.
Evaluation part 6
When I began my media project, I had no prior experience in using a camera to take professional photographs, and no knowledge on photoshop of other editing programs. The camera I used was a 10.2 mega pixel fujifilm camera.
As I began to take photographs I found out that this camera was not designed to do photographs for media use. However I learnt through trial and error of how to stage my photograph's with lighting, using the appropriate setting on the camera for the situation, for example outside to improve the photograph quality. Some of the first photograph's I took had fairly dark backgrounds and would not have been very effective for use in a magazine. Such as this photograph.
I also realised that in order to make it easier to edit photograph's they would need a plain background. I tried editing a photograph of the 'geeks' with a normal background and had a problem, I had to scrap the use of those as my main photograph's for my double page spread and my front cover because of this. Therefore I used a white bed sheet for my background and had brighter concentrated lighting.
After taking my photograph's I then had to edit them using photoshop. As I said, I had no prior knowledge of how to use this so I began with the basics on my preliminary task just messing around with different techniques. With my actual project I started by adding shapes and text onto my front cover photograph, this would provide the structure of my front cover. As I noticed through my research most photograph's on magazine front cover's over lap the shapes and text, I then used the masking technique on photoshop to 'erase' the parts that were not needed. My photograph was still slightly dark for what I wanted so I lightened it slightly. Here is an example of the first stages of editing.
After adding smaller photograph's and some more text to my front cover I was pretty much finished.
I learned that using photoshop you have to work in layers and layer things as, as with the masking technique if I had put the shape layer infront of the picture layer then it would not have worked. I feel I have improved my photoshop technique substatially because of this project.
Evaluation part 5
The audience of my magazine choose to challenge conventions and ideas of typical young adult and teenagers. Therefore I tried to steer away from copying any obvious styles that celebrities associated with the genre of music use, therefore creating my own style for the people I photographed. I order to engage with my audience I deliberately didn’t make my magazine look too complicated, using a limited pallet of colours associated with the rock/metal music scene. Red is very bold and can often be seen as trashy, readers of this type of magazine try and give the impression that they don’t care what people think and the more outrageous the better, so trashy would be the right look.
My article used very informal language; this was to connect with the audience as if they were talking to the artist themselves. This familiarity would enable the audience to relate better to the magazine and think of it as something personal to them. The fonts that I used all over my magazine were also quite blocky and simple to understand, making it accessible for everyone to read.
Evaluation part 4
My intended audience would be older teenagers/young adults who listen to rock/metal music. I chose this audience because I felt that I could relate to them and have an insight into what they would want. The average person reading this magazine would be a student, who would spend most of their spare time hanging out with friends listening to music, so they would be avid music enthusiasts. This magazine would be sold in newsagents, as well as in alternative shops, such as blue banana, which is where the audience for this magazine would shop for their clothing to keep up with the relevant fashion.
The audience this is aimed at is varied in personality style. From people that are very out going and don’t care about what people think, dressing how they want, to shock the world, and listening to the music corresponding. They would look something like this, with an element of attitude about them.
As well as people who are perhaps quiet, and genuinely love the music and just listen to it for that very reason, and like to have knowledge about the artist’s they love.
Evaluation part 3
My media product is a music magazine and would be distributed by magazine producer or a company with topical literature distribution experience, such as Rupert Murdoch, who owns the daily mail, Fox and various other media’s. Which ever media institute took on my magazine would need to be aware of the intended audience and distribute accordingly. This institute could also use it’s various other ventures to advertise and promote M! magazine, in order to increase sales and popularity.
Another media institution that may distribute the music magazine is an actual record company, related radio or television shows. For example Kerrang! Have their own music channel and a radio station that all play similar music and target the same audience. They are all linked. This may work for the distribution of my music magazine, as it is very closely related to the same genre of music as Kerrang! and this works for them. This may also help form loyal readers/listeners because of this.
Evaluation part 2
My magazine was mainly aimed at stereotypical rock or metal fans. The photographs I used were specifically not dressed over the top, but more casually, as this adheres to my intended social group’s dress. Artists in this genre of music tend to also dress in quite dark colours, or wearing statement clothing, as in clothing with unusual pictures and writing on. On my magazine contents page, I used a large photograph of ‘JES’, the person at the front of the group has an unusual t-shirt on and casual distressed jeans. This made her look ‘rocky’, to give the impression of rebellion against the norm, which is in keeping with the represented social group.
All of the people I used for my magazine were ages around 18; this was deliberate as this ages group older teenagers/young adults like this type of music. On my contents page I also have a smaller photograph of a boy and a girl facing each other. He has long black hair and is wearing a black hat, which is typical of the genre of music. The girl is intended to be an opposing ‘pop’ artist. She has plain makeup and is wearing a flowery top. This is in total contrast to the boy and also with the person on the front cover and double page, who had heavy dark makeup on.
Evaluation part 1
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My front cover
My front cover is heavily based on a Q front cover that I looked at in my research; I did this because Q uses very simple design format’s that still look very effective. The main image on my front cover is a close-up of a girl in heavy eye makeup holding onto drum sticks, I edited the photograph’s to make it more music genre specific. The background of the photograph is plain so that the attention is focused on the main image, not the background. The artist is called ‘Suze’ and her name is in large ‘Poplar Std’ font in white, with a black shadow. This is typical of music magazine front cover’s.
The name of the magazine is in different font to the rest of the magazine cover, this is because I wanted it to be noticeable and recognisable. I chose to have a black bar down the left hand side of the main image with smaller pictures of other artist’s, this was to show the main genre of music of the magazine and what other features were inside. This is similar to an NME magazine cover.
The contents page
The language I used on the contents page was more informal than the front page. I did this because the audience I was targeting prefers a ‘chattier’ form of language. The main photograph I used was in keeping with other contents pages that I did my research on. Instead of being set in front of a black background the photograph has an intended ‘real place’ background. The colouring on the contents page only uses about 4 colours, this was to make it more obvious that it was an ‘M!’ magazine because of the colour scheme.
The double page spread
The photograph used on the double page spread is practically the same as the front cover, this is because I wanted this to be one of the main attractions of the magazine and it made sense for them to correlate. Many of the double pages in my research break the boundary between photograph and text and have the titles over lapping the image, so this is what I did. Again I kept with the colours of the magazine.
Music magazine designs
Front cover designs
Chosen design
Other designs
Contents designs
Chosen design
Other designs
Double page designs
Chosen design
Other designs
