Ashhh

For my media coursework, I created the front page, a contents page and a double page spread of a new music magazine. All my images and text I used were original, produced by me.
I developed my music magazine in the form and conventions of real music products, using LIIAR. I named my magazine ‘Fresh’ because I was basing my music genre on new, fresh to the scene, indie music. A magazine like mine would be the NME magazine which I based a lot of my ideas around, in the making of my magazine. The masthead (Fresh) is in a red font because it stands out and represents a bright fresh colour on the front cover. Also the edit I used shows a white glow around it, to make it stand out and to give it that sparkling new look. As the music in my magazines is all new. My image on the front cover, is a medium close up which covers part of the masthead. This is common in music magazines because the institutions are usually well known, therefore hiding part of the masthead with the main image doesn’t stop the audience from recognising the institution. In the image the model is smiling and looking away slightly from the camera this gives a casual look to the magazine which relates well to my genre. As the NME (also an indie music magazine) involves casual pictures i.e. the wombats image – they are pulling faces and looking like they are having fun. whereas some other magazines use images which show a different style of music. The vibe magazines uses more famous artists who look serious on the image i.e. Eminem has his arms folded looking straight into the camera which a straight expression on his face. I also used lots of sub-headings of new indie bands (which were made up) such as “manic machines”. Like the NME magazine I have a sub heading at the bottom with a black rectangle around it and one at the top with a yellow rectangle around it, because these are also important subheadings and give it that professional look about it. I also Included a main sub heading which took up the majority of the page and related to the main image. For this I used an effective edit which made it stand out from the rest so that the audience will be drawn straight too it. The background colour also relates to the main image, as “the crafts” new album is called ‘the mist’ (as seen on my double page spread) so it gives it that smog look to it and also contrasts well with the bright headings and sub headings. I also used the basic conventions of a music magazine, including the date and price by the masthead so people straight away know what they will be paying and whether the issue has been recently distributed. I placed the barcode in the bottom right corner of my magazine because this was the most common place to find a barcode on a music magazine, this allows my magazine to fit in with the rest. I used my intuitions website and a tagline which was “All the Fresh music, in one fresh mag” this is effective because it informs my targets audience that all the latest songs will be included in my magazine.
For my contents page, I kept it simple and straight to the point because I believe the contents page has to be easily readable for the audience to identify what page they need to be on. I included the title ‘Whats inside’ at the bottom of the page as this gives the audience the impression that the contents are more important, the image I used was an iPod as it connotates music and also relates to the text inside it. “Win FREE tickets to the iPod festival” for the contents I used the same red colour as my masthead because it is sticking with the fresh idea of fresh new music.
On my double page spread I included the story on the main sub heading, I took another picture of my model this time it was just a medium shot, I also included a picture of “the crafts” new album. The album is called ‘the mist’ which is explained why in the interview. But I tried to promote the name of the album which any artist would want. I did this by having the name of the album on one side of the double page spread with an misty effect behind it.
My media product represents particular groups because of the clothes I dressed my model in; I tried to get him looking like an indie by choosing to wear polo’s, also on the double page spread his clothes (grey polo) match the mist look to the page. Also with the use of bands names that aren’t well known suggests that these are just the typical unsigned indie bands.
In the planning process of my magazine I used LIIAR:- Language, Ideology, Institution, Audience and Representation to pick out the codes and conventions of music magazines in which I would use in the construction of my own magazine. I posted all my planning research on a blog and referred back to it when I was to making my music magazine. I looked at magazines such as SPIN, VIBE and NME to get an accurate idea of all the codes and conventions. I also drafted a front cover, a contents page and a double page spread which helped to construct my text and images. I used Adobe Photoshop to construct my full magazine with a little use of publisher and I used a camera from home to take the photo’s of my model.
The audience my magazine is aimed is 15-25 year olds because I believe its this age group that take an interest in indie songs therefore I got a model that fitted the target audience to attract the them also, 15-25 year olds love to keep up with the latest songs therefore sub contents such as ‘the latest fresh tunes of the week’ will attract my target audience to buy the magazine and to check out what songs new are coming into the music industry I then asked people in the target audience to give me audience feedback on the music magazine.
Looking at my audience feedback the average rating out 6 for my front cover was 5, the average for my contents was 4 and my double page spread was 5. The also told me that my strengths were things like the iPod idea. The effect of some of the fonts, like the glow to make words stand out, like ‘fresh’ and “the crafts” and the mist effect on the double page spread. Some weaknesses were that the colours of the double page spread are too dull and that the background on the front cover clashes with some of the darker subheadings. There was also a problem with the cutting out of my images which some people picked up on, this was something I struggled to do effectively on Photoshop and would need to work on in future Photoshop constructions. The audience feedback showed me that the majority of people thought my magazine was for the correct target audience (15-25) and also they could easily identify via the front cover that it was a music magazine, generally because of the words used such as “fresh tunes”, “album”, “tour dates”. And also people could guess the genre of the music by the model and what he is wearing which I thought was good for my front cover.
Looking back at the preliminary task “using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of DTP.” I have learnt lots in the making of my music magazine, firstly how to use Photoshop to cut out images and construct magazines. I have learnt the codes and conventions of music magazines and how to use images effectively.

Ashhh

Media Coursework

Friday 26 March 2010

Evaluation

Improved Front Cover

Front Cover

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Double Page Spread

Audience feedback

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