For my music magazine I have looked at all the conventional
elements of a music magazine and have tried to include them in my final
product. On my front cover I have used a clear masthead at the top of the
splash, I have used a good clear image positioned in the centre of the front
cover, I have used a main feature and have indicated the main feature within the
font colours and the size of the font. I have used a barcode, issue number and
price. I have used a skyline over the masthead to include an established pop
artists name to promote the genre of pop within my magazine. I have used a
flash to show the price of my magazine and I have also used teasing content at
the bottom of the page to promote one of my features within the magazine.
For my contents page I have stuck to the colour scheme of
blue, pink, red and yellow. The consistency of my colour scheme was picked up
through my audience feedback ‘the colour
scheme is good and consistent.’ For my contents page I focused on getting
the conventions of a music magazine have been reflected, I have used a page
title, a features section down the side, there’s an image on the artist positioned
next to the title page, I used page numbers and large clear font to show the
article name and the page number of the article.
For the double page spread I have used a clear image with a quotation
under the image, the image is a medium close up which was a long shot but after
audience feedback I noticed that I needed to use a medium close up as much of
my audience feedback comment on my use of image. I also used small images of
the artist on the page and included a section dedicated to ‘fans of the
magazine’ who can send in their own questions, that was used to make the
audience feel more involved and it was something which I found common within my
research of music magazines.
My magazine reflects young people who have a particular
interest in the pop genre and like main stream artists and music. On the front
page of my music magazine I mention Conor Maynard and Justin Bieber as a way of
making my music magazine specific to different fan bases. Justin Bieber is
already a very well established pop artist so by using his name on my front
cover I already appealed to a fan base.
Also on my magazine I offered free posters to readers this
would attract young students who have a low income and rely on others for
financial support. I advertised free posters after looking at other pop
magazines and seeing what promotional offers they had. Based on my target
audiences of young teens in the psychographic group E I decided that posters
rather than free tickets or meet and greets were more appropriate for their age
group.
Through my research I learnt about many institutions and
the magazines in which they already distribute. Through this research I learnt
about Bauer Media, Conde Nast and IPC media.
Because if my research I learnt that Bauer media publish NME
magazine, publishers of Heat radio and also play a part in FHM the men’s
magazine. All these media institutions are very successful and are always high
quality. Bauer media are very successful with approximately 400 magazines, 110
websites and 50 radio and TV programmes. They employ over 8,700 employers, the
distribute media products in 15 different countries including the US and China.
For my research into existing media texts I researched a
media institution called Conde Nast. This is a company based in America. They
are in charge of publishing magazines such as; Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New
Yorker and GQ. They sell more than 126 magazines, and publish 104 web pages as
well as selling to over 24 global countries.
Lastly I researched a media institution called IPC media.
This media institution is also highly successful, they publish magazines such
as; Nuts Magazine (men’s magazine), Look and Now both highly successful women’s
magazine and NME. IPC media produces over 60 iconic media brands, the
institution prints to cater for over 42% of men and 48% of UK woman. The brand
website reaches over 20 million users each month.
For my magazine I have think that Bauer media would be a
good institution to distribute my music. I think this because they specialise
in more the musical side of publishing, were as IPC media and Conde Nast focus
more on weekly woman’s magazine’s and fashion magazines rather than music
magazines.
My target audience are young girls aged 15-24 who have a
particular interest in the pop genre but also enjoy learning about fashion
choices and the latest celebrity gossip. My target audience fit within the
psychographic group E as they rely on other for financial support and do not
provide their own income they do not have a specific skill which can be used in
employment, however they do go to college and school and are motivated
individuals.
When choosing my model I went with someone who looked
friendly and happy because I wanted my magazine to feel the same way. I chose
the dress my model as a typical teenaged girl with flat plimsoll shoes and a
long sleeved top. I didn’t want to dress my model in a dress because I knew
that she wouldn’t feel comfortable and that would of reflected within the
images. I chose black clothing with blue plimsolls because I wanted to keep her
image plain and make the colouring on my magazine more exciting and stand out
more. I used a female model because my magazine was aimed at more of the female
population of young girls, by using a female model I wanted to draw in the
attention of the young female audience and give my target audience someone who
they could connect with.
When choosing my location I looked into other magazines
which had placed an artist against a blank canvas and others which had used a
back drop. I liked the idea of a blank canvas because it meant that I could add
more colour to my magazine front cover and choose a house style for my front
cover. I wanted to create my own style of magazine and by using a blank canvas
I knew I could do that. Also by shooting inside against a blank canvas I had
easy access to lighting which made for better quality clear images, the
lighting add a glow to the model and made the images look a lot more
professional.
Whilst taking my images I used a wide range of shots. I
started by taking long shots of the model holding a guitar and striking various
poses. However after a while I realised that most music magazines usually use
MCU or medium shots of artists on their front covers. I took some medium close
up shots whilst I gave instructions for my model who posed in various positions
and in some shots smiled whilst other ones she pouted giving a fun element to
the shots. I took some close ups to capture the models emotions and to also
capture her facial features like her smile and her eyes which I knew would
capture the eye of an audience. Also whilst I took images of my model in medium
close up I made her lean into the camera, I’d seen an image similar during my
research on the front of Billboard magazine, I’d liked this image as it
connected the artist to the audience and the artist looked directly into the
camera like they were capturing the attention of the audience and drawing them
into the main feature more.
By using Adobe Photoshop I was able to gain skills of how
to edit an image and manipulate parts of an image to create a certain effect. Using
Photoshop was hard at first because of all the options I had of changing an
image but once I knew what I wanted my image to look like and how I wanted my
final product to look it became easier to follow and became a lot easier to
use.
I learnt a lot by using Photoshop for instance I learnt how
to but a ‘stroke’ around text or an image, this adds a coloured boarder round
the object to make it stand out more on the page. This is good when I wanted to
make the masthead on the front cover to stand out against the bright colouring
of the magazine.
Another skill I learnt using Photoshop was how to edit my
image to give my model a flawless look which many celebrities now have on the
cover of many magazines. I was shown how to do this the first time and
practiced a little, however I did have to rely on YouTube tutorials when I felt
stuck or had forgotten a stage. The flawless look required me to use many
different skills on Photoshop. The following images show the stages of changing
the appearance of the models skin.
Using the quick selection tool I was able to select the part of the skin which I wanted to edit to give my model the 'flawless' look.
Next the image had to be blurred using the Gaussian blur tool, this changed the focus of the image.
Next the erase tool had to be used to erase the blur from the eyes and from the lips to make the model look more natural and therefore make her skin look better but keeping the image to look like it had been taken and her skin was already like that.
Another software I used was Blogger. At times Blogger proved
difficult because when it came to uploading images onto a blog, it was very
difficult to arrange the images in an order on the blog post, also using
blogger it was hard to upload images that weren't jpeg format because blogger didn't accept other formats of images.
Blogger was for the most part of the project very reliable
but I had to make sure to back my work up in case blogger didn’t save my work
or it blog account got hacked and the work was deleted.
However blogger is a useful software as it means that work
can be kept orderly and files that are quiet big can be uploaded easily and
quickly meaning work is submitted on time and with ease. Another good point
about blogger is how easy it is to access someone else’s blog, for example my
blog has received well over 190 views worldwide meaning that it is reaching a
mass audience and it helps when viewing peers work as they can help you by
giving feedback on your product by looking on your blog.
After creating my music magazine I looked back at the
work for my college magazine. The biggest improvement was during the planning
and research phase of the task because during my music magazine I looked
closely at the codes and conventions of a music magazine and made sure to plan
my ideas (mock ups) around the codes and conventions rather than what would
look good. Also for my college magazine I didn’t really think about the
lighting of my image whereas for my music magazine I made sure that there was
enough bright lighting for my image to look more professional therefore
providing a higher quality of image.
The styling of my magazine has also changed. For my college
magazine I used purple on my front cover, therefore not thinking about a house
style or a colour theme based on the type of magazine. However during my
research and planning of my music magazine I started to look into colour
schemes and looked at existing music magazines and there colour schemes, for
example Rolling Stones magazine who have their signature red, black and white
masthead and the splash of their magazine usually reflects the artist within
the main feature. I looked at Pop magazines and saw how they used pinks, blues
and other bright colours to reflect a bright and vibrant genre as well as a
bright and vibrant music magazine. For my colour scheme I stuck to three main
colours of pink, yellow and blue and this made the styling of the magazine look
better therefore giving a more professional look as well as appealing more to
the eye of my target audience.
