Thursday, 15 December 2011

Evaluation of Music Magazine (M2U)

 
I have created a music magazine called M2U (Music to You) which includes a cover, contents page and a double page spread article.

The media product I have created follows but also challenges different conventions found in real music magazines I researched in my lead up to the production of my media product. An example of this research is into institutions and how they sell their magazines and looking back at previous magazine covers, contents pages and double page spreads from the like of Q Magazine and NME.

In my media product the conventions which I followed are mainly found on the cover of my magazine. The cover stars dominate the page with a bold headline overlaying the image. I also tried to create an easy but recognisable masthead which, as I’ve done slightly, can still be recognised when the cover stars overlap it. Further conventions I have followed on my cover are the use of a pug, cover line and puff to add more information to the magazine to appeal to the intended audience of my magazine (which I describe later).

After my front cover I began to develop in the convention of having a house style of fonts and layout throughout the rest of my magazine, I also returned to my front cover to continue this later in the project. I mainly use white, red and black colours throughout all my created pages which I believe works well as the images break up the repeated use of the same colours. I however believe I could have improved parts of my magazine by using a few different colours just to break up the page with something that stands out more.

Something I believe I challenged is on my contents page where I decided to use a main image that fills about a quarter of the page with no description and only a page number. I thought this was a good idea as my target audience and ideal reader would buy every issue of the magazine and would recognise the band and, if they wanted, go straight to the main double page spread just based on the image from the contents page; however I still kept to the form of having page numbers and information in a column to the side of the page.

I think my magazine represented its intended social group of young adults interested in music with the connotations that could be made from the use of colours, layout and images. The dark colours suggest a representation of a serious approach to music and the white and black bold text furthers this message. My front cover used to have a more casual font, as if written, but after thinking about it I believed it didn’t fit the style and serious manner I wanted the magazine to portray. I have also used a plain white background which I believe represents the particular social group who have a serious interest with music and want the information to be clear and images to stand out. With these thoughts it made me change my contents page to something more appropriate as the old page used to have a colour background which I believed didn’t fit and made the page look messy and text and images not as clear as my final choice of white. My double page spread contains an interview, profiles and Q&A which I believe provides appropriate information about the band. It isn’t what you’d find in a teen magazine; it covers questions older audiences would want to know about but still in a light-hearted way to appeal to larger range of people.

The media institution that may distribute my magazine would be one that already owns other popular monthly/weekly music magazines. The reasons for this are they would be able to advertise my magazine and possibly extend M2U to other parts of media with cross-media ownership (e.g. radio and a website). They would also have expertise in areas of media conventions which could help my music magazine sell more, plus the larger institutions would have deals with shops such as WHSmiths which are well recognised as magazine sellers, this would further my magazine sales too.

The ideal audience for my media product would be an audience between the ages of 21-24 and specifically the ABC1 readership. The ideal reader is male, in a comfortably paid job with a good education to earn a safe living. They are living in either a flat or their first house and still have the time to follow the latest rock/pop music scene. Shopping at places like Tesco, still buying their music from HMV and regular night outs with ‘the lads’ to talk about music and other subjects such as gadgets and sport. They don’t earn enough money to splash out on expensive items but still keeps disposable income aside for him to spend on luxuries including this magazine. The magazine would include advertisements such as TVs, new music releases, gigs and activity days out. These would appeal to the ideal reader who saves their money, but earns enough to treat themselves regularly on cheaper items such as CDs. The magazine focuses on providing all the latest on the alternative rock scene, and occasionally looking into other rock scenes when appropriate. The lifestyle marketing would also be affected by people who buy this magazine and adverts relating to the ideal reader and would hopefully deliver audiences to advertisers.

Ways in which I attracted and addressed my audience include main cover stars which take up the front cover, an easily recognisable masthead and bold headline (which I still believe could have been improved by possibly changing the font or colour to stand out further). My contents page also personally addressed the reader, an example being ‘Find out if your favourite...’ plus a letter from the band addressed to the reader to attract the audience and feel like there’s more interaction between the stars and reader (the ‘ASK’ section on the double page spread being an example of this interaction). The double page spread continues a simple to follow layout to attract the reader to read the article as it doesn’t appear challenging and stand out quotes break up the text and images, so the readers’ can further their knowledge on the ‘Eye-Ful Towers’. My front page headline is also a command and could attract the reader to what there is to read inside the magazine; other headlines and information inside my magazine also directly address the reader. The interview, on my double page spread, also began by setting the scene so the reader can hopefully understand the feeling of the band during the interview plus jokes included in the text and with the pictures continues the light-hearted appeal to the target audience.

I’ve learnt much about technologies from my preliminary project from the likes of Adobe Photoshop, professional cameras and www.blogger.com. Based on the finished products of my music and college magazines you can easily see I’ve learnt a lot about how Photoshop works and how to achieve the best effects to create a professional looking magazine. My first magazine shows me testing Photoshop with a lot of effects used (and less in my music magazine as I thought ‘less is more’ was a better route for my serious approach). I learnt more about the use of layers in Photoshop to either hide or show appropriate parts of images and texts so there’s nothing unnecessary showing in the magazine. When editing my images I used the dodge and burn tools on certain areas of images to improve its look for a more professional look. To continue this professional look I also showed ruler lines to help put layers in an ordered fashion, which I believe was a main factor in why my magazine worked well. I also used different edits on my layers, only when appropriate though, as I stated earlier, such as drop/inner shadows and the use of bevel and emboss to make my text appear to have a 3D effect and adding to my hope for a professional look. The use of the stroke effect on different layers aids towards certain parts of my magazine standing out more. In my photo shoot I learnt much about how professional cameras work, such as focus. However, I believe I could have improved on this front as I learn how the camera worked on the day and had no knowledge of how to achieve the best results with the camera (talking to someone who knew about cameras would have helped to achieve better shots). I have also learnt how to blog my work with ease as I’d never used the website before, I was learning how to during my preliminary task. However, by the time I started my music magazine I felt I knew how to use the website efficiently.

In the progression to my full product from my preliminary task I have learnt many things. Firstly I learnt what conventions best suit different magazine to attract the right target audience, followed by advertising in media and how this relates to lifestyle marketing and attracting audiences to both advertising and the magazine itself. Another thing I have learnt is the appropriate actions to undertake before creating and producing my magazine. This includes primary and secondary research (questionnaires and other music magazines), planning my magazine layout and text in advance, plus permissions, risk assessments and the location recce before my photo shoot. In the photo shoot I learnt about getting the images I wanted by planning with the cover stars their poses to achieve the right images. My skills have also improved with photo shoots as I actually did my music magazine photos in a controlled environment instead of out and about which I did with my College magazine. I believe I could have still improved with my music magazine photo shoot with the technical side, such as correct lighting and using the camera correctly to achieve the best shots.  Continuing in the project I have learnt much about creating a magazine on Adobe Photoshop and with assistance  improved a lot since my ‘College Times’ magazine with things like layout, photo/text effects and achieving a professional looking magazine. Finally I have learnt a lot about making and evidencing research and my progression through a project, this is evidenced in the amount of blog posts for my College magazine compared with the number of posts for my music magazine to show how I improved, progressed, evidenced and researched before-hand.

Completed Music Magazine (M2U)


Front cover


Contents Page


Double Page Spread

Wednesday, 14 December 2011

Changes to magazine front cover

These are the two front covers that I changed. I chnaged it so it followed my house style colour choices and the other for a font that I believed didn't represented the audience I wanted my magazine to appeal to (serious).

New updated cover
Old cover (with different text for 'Also Starring')

Tuesday, 13 December 2011

Moodboard

This is the moodboard I have created before I started my magazine production. It shows the inspiration I had to use red throughout my magazine and how my coverstars have both a serious and fun side. The moodboard also contains some of my favourite artists and two music magazines I regularly read that I have used ideas from for the production of my own magazine.

Thursday, 8 December 2011

Double Page Spread - In progress (without text)

The start of the double page spread without any text yet, the pages are going to contain both an interview, with information about the band. Plus the pictures on the page above are going to be used for small profiles on each band member.

Tuesday, 6 December 2011

Progress of music magazine - Contents Page

This is my first attempt at the contents page, which I believed didn't follow my ideas on the serious look I wanted my magazine to be. I have since changed my contents page to a more serious look. A change I have made is to not have a background colour to make it clearer.

Thursday, 17 November 2011

The institution that owns Q magazine

The institution that Q magazine, the magazine I am using ideas from for my own magazine, belongs to a company called Bauer Media Group, a German publishing group which operates in 15 different countries around the world. Worldwide circulation of Bauer Media Group's magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week.
Including Q magazine, the institution owns and publishes many different magazines. The main categories of magazines they own are women’s weekly’s, TV listing magazine and music magazines. Some magazines include Takeabreak and TV choice. The other music magazine they publish along with Q is Kerrang.
As the Bauer Media Group has a few different kind of genres of product, means they can gain different types of advertisers to interest the different types of products they publish.
Q for example has also been expanded from a magazine to TV and radio which can also be used to advertise for profit but also advertise their other products they own. The magazine also has a website which informs people with news and also has a shop and links to other products.
The music area is a big part of the institution as they have a stake in many music video channels, such as 4Music and Smash Hits TV. These TV channels will contain many advertisements between its videos which gain much profit as they are popular channels for the younger audience, which most advertisements will be.
The institution can control its distribution so, for example a magazine is advertised in their other media products plus on main channels. It’s sold in big stores to so the magazine has to try and appeal to as many people as it can to make more profit. The products have to media conventions so people can easily recognise the product and continue its popularity and keep its regulars who buy/watch/listen etc.
All these media products that are part of the Bauer Media Group will gain most of their profits from the advertisers they get to appear in their media products.

Ideas for masthead and the completed masthead

These pictures show my original idea of the masthead and then the completed masthead created on photoshop.
I believe I have recreated my idea well with slight changes to colour choice and size/font of the letters.

Thursday, 10 November 2011

Permissions of actors for my music magazine photo-shoot

These are the completed permission forms by each of the four actors (including me) who appeared in and took part in my music magazine photo-shoot photos, they understood the terms and conditions of the day and agreed to take part (with a great out-come).



 

 

Risk Assessment/Location Report Forms for Photo-Shoot

These are the completed forms for the risk assessment and location report for my music magazine photo-shoot:

Tuesday, 8 November 2011

Ideas for music magazine (M2U drawings)

Front Cover idea:
 

 Contents Page Idea:

 Double Page Spread (1st Idea):

 Double Page Spread (2nd Idea):

Monday, 7 November 2011

Primary Research for music magazine - Questionnaire - Analysis

An example of a completed questionnaire:

Analysis of the results:
I created a questionnaire which would help me understand what a reader interested in a particular musical genre would want from a music magazine.
25% of the people I asked read Q magazine regularly which showed me that these people are serious about their music as it is a magazine more for an ABC1 readership and Q magazine takes a more serious approach to music which my magazine will have to follow. However 75%, the rest of the people asked, said they read NME regularly. This shows they are interested in what’s happening in the music scene as it’s a weekly magazine, once again also must really enjoy music if they are buying it most weeks. This information tells me that my magazine has to have a serious approach to music and appeal to readers who enjoy a grown-up view on music.
My next two questions focused on what a reader would be interested in seeing within the magazine. With high results saying that they are interested in images inside their magazine and going to tours/gigs which would indicate sections in a magazine on this subject would interest them. Another high response was interviews in the magazine. For my own magazine I will be including an interview with my cover stars, so based on the questionnaire results this is what people would want to read in a music magazine.
Information was also collected on the cover of the magazine. The main part of a magazine is the cover as it’s the first thing you see in a shop, so I asked what would interest a reader most on a cover and an amazing 100% of the people I asked said a ‘good cover star’ which means the star has to look interesting and the cover has to capture a good moment, even if a reader isn’t a fan a good cover star image that looks good will make people buy a magazine. This is why I have taken many photos for my own magazine cover so I will be able to select the best one to catch the reader’s eye.
The next two questions talk about the contents page of a magazine, an important part of any magazine to give all the magazine contents across in an interesting way. I firstly asked what people expected on a contents page, with many saying text but my next question asked what they would want on a contents page in their opinion and many decided to explain what they wanted in the short space provided on the questionnaire. They said they would ‘want more pictures added to the contents page’ however keeping text still on the page but ‘laid out in an interesting way’.
The last question focuses on the cover of the magazine asking whether they would be bothered if a cover star took up most of the cover, based on earlier results of a ‘good cover star’ the highest answer was ‘no they wouldn’t be bothered with the star taking up most of the cover’. Another result I will use on my own cover with the stars taking centre stage in my magazine.
From my results I have gathered, a high amount of interesting information has been gained. I will use this towards my own magazine so hopefully my magazine will interest the target audience it is intended for.

Double Page Spread Analysis


The double page spread I have analysed is from Q magazine on an article with its cover stars of the month ‘Beady Eye’.
The magazine colours and layout follow the house style of the magazine with its red/black/white colour use throughout. The headline of the article incorporates both the band name and a quote together, with the name standing out in a bigger font and different colour. The quote is an outlandish statement to get the reader’s attention and may be taken out of context to gain maximum impact on the reader. Near to the headline a smaller longer amount of text is provided on what is discussed and covered in the article, this provides more information so the reader knows what to expect or is enticed by subject matters that are said to be covered.
A main image fills most of the page and the background is plain to show seriousness and how the focus is only on them and no-one else at this point in the magazine. The stars themselves are also expressing a serious look to continue theirs and the magazine’s serious approach to music. The image idea follows suit on the next double page spread where a band image takes up half the page. This time however, boxes are near each person that provides a small amount of information on each of them, like a quick round-up of the person for people who are interested in their work so far. These boxes and text continue to follow the house-style of the magazine in red and white.
The other half of the spread is part of an interview with the band covering many different subject matters. The use of a dropped capital is also used at the start of the interview plus to distinguish who’s talking in the interview their initials are used before they speak to tell the reader they are talking. The questions asked are also put in bold so that it stands out and the reader an easily scan the page and see what questions are asked, following suit the text is on a white background so the text is easy to read.

Thursday, 20 October 2011

Research for target audience

I am going to create a questionnaire which focuses on what would interest people who were reading this magazine and what would make them pick up the magazine to buy it. I will then use the information collected from the questionnaires to create a conclusion about what should be included in my cover, contents and double page spread. This information should help me create an appealing magazine if it were to be sold to the similar audience.

Start of Music Magazine - The magazine I'm creating (who its for and examples of existing magazines)

The magazine I will be creating is a music magazine based around alternative rock. It is aimed at an audience between the ages of 21-24 and specifically the ABC1 readership. Its ideal reader is male, in a comfortably paid job with a good education to earn a safe living. They are living in either a flat or their first house and still have the time to follow the latest rock/pop music scene. Shopping at places like Tesco, still buying their music from HMV and regular night outs with ‘the lads’ to talk about music and other subjects such as gadgets and football. They don’t earn enough money to splash out on expensive items but still keeps disposable income aside for him to spend on luxuries including this magazine. The magazine would include advertisements such as TVs, new music releases, gigs and activity days out. These would appeal to the ideal reader who saves their money, but earns enough to treat themselves regularly on cheaper items such as CDs. The magazine focuses on providing all the latest on the alternative rock scene, and occasionally looking into other rock scenes when appropriate. The cover star takes up most of the cover and other bands/artists are provided in the cover line to tell the buyer who's inside the issue. The rest of the cover will consist of stand out quotes, pictures and information about what to expect for the reader, these parts may be of interest to people who perhaps are not perhaps fans of the cover stars as much, it will also contain a choice of darker colours to appeal both the intended target audience and the male audience (a possible colour choice is dark blue against white). The contents page will then introduce the reader to what the main story of the issue is about followed by which pages to find all the other news, interviews and other music acts on. To achieve this I am going to take my own photos and then edit them in photoshop. Photoshop will also be used to create the end product, editing the photos, text and other conventions of a magazine.





One example of a similar type of magazine is Q magazine. It appeals to younger audience interested in music, mainly featuring rock/pop stars as the cover stars, a catchy headline which consists of their name, a pun or a quote to gain interest to the buyer in the shop. The use of colours show it appeals to people who are serious about music and to a young adult audience as no bright colourful colours are used. The red, black, simple and bold texts continue to the idea of seriousness. The cover lines then normally go on to tell the reader who else appears in the issue plus they have a very recognisable masthead, enough so that in some issues to the cover star overlays it because they are confident they have a devoted fan base for the magazine and that its recognisable enough to everyone interested in the music magazine. The cover stars and layout of the cover vary from issue to issue depending on the type of band/artist they are. This can be serious with a darker background to suit or a happy picture with font colours matching to it. The contents page often is arranged similarly each issue, in a list in a side column but also uses images with no text to indicate where an article is, this is mainly used for the cover stars and other more well-known acts and it takes up about half of the contents page. With each page indicated there is also a short description about what to expect in this section of the magazine. Its use of colour follows the serious manner from the cover.




Another example is NME, a magazine aimed at a young audience once again, focusing this time on new music. This magazine is a weekly issue is cheaper than Q magazine which is a monthly magazine, this cheaper price appeals to the younger audience because they will have less money. The cover is often of a darker tone to appeal to a young adult audience who don’t want bright colours as it would make the magazine appear too young for them. The cover star is often not smiling to show the serious take they have on providing readers with their weekly news on music. The magazine follows all the main factors of a magazine, with its cover line, large and bold headline and well-known masthead. The contents page of NME is very simply made mainly consisting of images to tell the reader which page anything is, they have a small section at the bottom however which indicates which pages to find whole sections on as opposed to individual artists/interviews as this magazine is a news magazine, its contents are set out in a way to a newspaper with its regular features rather than each story itself, this is because NME did begin as a newspaper about music. It is also not set out as much a list and spread across the whole page with colours of black and white which say ‘it’s only here to give you the music news and nothing else’.

Thursday, 13 October 2011

Evaluation - College Times Magazine


My College magazine consists of many of the necessary media products needed for a magazine front cover. These include the use of a pug, cover line and some puffs. A headline is also used with a pun on a song and moving to college. A stand-out and recognisable masthead is also used telling the audience what the magazine is about. A medium close up image is also used on the cover of a student looking happy to portray college as a good place.The contents page also follows suit with an appropriate image and brief descriptions of what's inside the magazine and numbered with what page they are on. I also added another popular media magazine product of a competition. I think both cover and contents page could be improved with colours that work better with the images and perhaps darker colours to appeal to a younger audience.
The particular social group the magazine is aimed at is young adults who are beginning college for the first time and need some information/a helping hand into starting at college. The images and language of the magazine appeal to a younger audience. However I still believe it could have been improved with style, language and imagery appealing more to the youth of today and show them college is up-to-date and they will enjoy it.
I believe the BBC would be an appropriate media institution that may distribute the product because they encourage many education projects and they could advertise in it about such things.
I believe my audience for is a younger audience, because of the cover/contents images used representing the age group its aimed at. I would improve the project next time by considering the connotations made by the colours used through to appeal to the correct audience (perhaps darker). More images also could have been included to show all a range of the age group its aimed at.
I attracted the audience for my magazine with such things as jokes on my contents page and puffs with appealing information so the reader will be of interest to them and they pick up the magazine. However I still believe the colours could have been changed to appeal to the correct teenage audience rather than a younger audience (darker colours perhaps).
I have learnt about photo-shop and how to use it to create a magazine and cut/crop images etc. I have also learnt how to use an advanced camera to take higher quality images for both the cover and contents page of my magazine.
I have I have learnt a lot in this task, including how to make a magazine appeal to a particular audience and how to use photo-shop to create a magazine to standard quality which I hope to improve in later projects. In the next project I believe I could improve on certain skills on photo-shop such as layering images correctly, changes these images to suit the magazine and smoothing edges of images to appear smooth and of high quality. I also think I need to improve on effects skills in photo-shop so I can improve the look of the magazine in later projects.

Thursday, 6 October 2011

College Magazine

6/10 -Began and finished the 'College Times' magazine. I believe I followed my plan rather well, with some slight changes but overall looks like it.
Considered colours for the magazine and how it was set out and liked the outcome when it was finished.
Going to take photos for my music magazine on Monday.

Thursday, 29 September 2011

Researching

Have spent last few lessons researching how to design a contents page and front cover in a way to appeal to the audience. Have also looked into taking the right photo for a college magazine and soon will be taking the actual photos needed to start photo shopping and creating my front page and contents page.
Had a lesson on photo shopping to get the basics and some more advances tips on creating a good cover for a college magazine and also practising these skills before the actual task.

Thursday, 22 September 2011

First draft of college magazine:
Made a first draft called 'College Times' with all the required parts. Showing where the picture and headline etc will be placed on the page. I took a possible photo for the cover but this may be changed for a different image. The magazine's target audience is people just starting at college as the magazine offers a 'complete guide' to starting at college with 'courses explained' and 'student opinions'.  In the another lesson had someone do a short review of it with positives and negatives so that I could improve the draft before I make the actual magazine cover and contents page.

Thursday, 15 September 2011

Start

Began planning College magazine, with a hand drawn draft of the front cover and contents page. With the target audience of 'students beginning college and are concerned about what they will encounter when they start'.