Sylvie Varnier
Evaluation In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My front cover uses forms and conventions, because the masthead is at the top left, so in newsagents you will be able to see it and recognise it straight away. There is also a banner at the bottom and a lure near the masthead. It challenges the forms and conventions, because I placed most of the text on the right hand side of the page, because I wanted it to go around the photo of the singer and not in front of her face. My contents page challenges forms and conventions, because the text is not all on the same side, the main article is at the top of the page, and the title ‘Contents’ is in the same font as the name of the magazine on the front cover. My double page spread uses the forms and conventions, because the text is in columns, I’ve used a drop cap and the main photo is mainly on one page. For the three smaller images, I added a blue edge, to match with the house style. The house style of my magazine is blue, white and black text and the information is quite neatly laid out. For the contents page and double page spread, I decided to use a white background because it’s cheaper for the publisher to print and it also makes the text stand out more and is easier to read. How does your media product represent particular social groups? My media product represents a particular social group, because in the double page spread, the person in the main article is wearing a black lace dress, which conveys the genre of music her band is and also goes with what some of the readers might wear. I also used lots of live photos on the contents page and one on the front cover, because the photos convey energy and show the band in a different light than if they were made up in a studio with proper lighting. For the double page spread, I decided to use ‘Leo’s broken amp got us signed’ as the pull quote, because the reader would want to know how that happened, so would be interested in reading the full article. I think it also shows the reader that the band is lucky and have to work hard, but do get what they worked for in the end and gives out the message for the readers to not give up, because the readers could one day be successful like the band. I used four images from the photo shoot in which the person shows different poses, which shows she doesn’t really take life too seriously.
Sylvie Varnier What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I would choose IPC to distribute my magazine, because they distribute two photography magazines and a magazine about guitars and bass guitars, which my reader audience are interested in, so IPC could advertise their other three magazines in mine. IPC also distribute NME and Uncut. My inspiration was mainly from NME, because they use bold colours, like using live photos and have articles about known bands as well as unknown, which I also have in my magazine. Because all of my readers have internet and spend a lot of time on it, I could also have my magazine as an online magazine on issuu.com. This way it’s free and because the readers are students they would prefer this to spending money. The magazine would also not take up any space and the readers could also tell their friends about it and send them a link to it so a lot of people will be able to get to it quickly. Who would be the audience for you media product?
In my reader profile, I’ve shown that the average age of the readers are 19. They like going to festivals, meeting other people, are interested in listening to unknown and known bands, like playing an instrument (mainly guitar), are up to date with technology (have iPods, games consoles etc.), listen to music a lot in their spare time and like to spend time with friends, go shopping and would rather go to local gigs rather than to a club. I think this reader profile is represented well by my magazine, because my magazine has lots of live gig photos, has information about both signed and unsigned bands and about local festivals and festivals that are not as well
Sylvie Varnier known as ones like Glastonbury. The bands and festivals are also ones that show indie, rock and alternative bands, which is the genre of my magazine. How did you attract/address your audience? The USP of my magazine is that they have articles about unknown bands and small festivals. I think attracts the readers to my magazine more than to others, because not many other magazines have lots of articles about unsigned bands and smaller festivals don’t have much money for advertising. I would advertise my magazine on MTV2 and in IPCs guitar and bass magazine. I chose MTV2 rather than MTV, because MTV2 is a music channel that specialises in showing indie, rock and alternative bands, rather than showing mainly pop and RnB. I also made a survey and sent it to my friends to tell me what they thought about my magazine and if they would buy it. This is some of the feedback I received. “I like the articles, because they are of quite a few different types of bands, but still in the same sort of genre that shows on all the pages.” “I would buy your magazine, because it has a lot of articles about unsigned bands and I think it’s important for more people to listen to those sorts of bands.” “I like the layout of the magazine, because it isn’t too busy and the use of live photos from gigs is really nice. I also like the main article on the double page spread being mostly about the history of the band and how they got famous.” Overall, my target audience would buy my magazine, because the layout is neat and the genres of the bands I included are what they would listen to. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I’ve learnt a lot about Photoshop CS3 and how to edit images by changing the contrast and lighting source. I also now know more about what gets the reader’s attention and what fonts and layout appeals to different audiences. When I did the photo shoot, I had to make sure the lighting wasn’t too bright, because even though I can change the lighting on Photoshop, I wanted the photos to seem as realistic as possible and not re-touched or given a different effect. When doing this magazine I also just found out about dafont.com which helped me a lot, because I could play around with different fonts and use the right font to represent the genre of the music in my magazine.
Sylvie Varnier Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? With this project, I think I managed my time better, because I knew what sort of layout of each page I wanted and I also knew more about Photoshop. I know also now how important the photos, font and colour of text are to represent the genre of the music in a magazine and also about a white background costing less for printing in the production. Representation of photos of the artists in the band and colours used shows the genre of the genre of music the magazine is about. If on a front cover there were main sells about RnB singers, you wouldn’t expect the photo of the band to be dressed in black with chains and back make-up on. For my magazine, on the double page spread I made the singer dress up in a black lace dress, because it’s in fashion and is also something a lot of the readers may wear and like the style of, because it’s not too old fashioned. The Masthead is also important for a magazine. Most mastheads of well known magazines like Q, NME and Clash are on the left side, because when the magazine is on a shelf in a newsagent, the left side is the side that doesn’t get covered up by the other magazines in front. Also, having two to three strong colours as the text of the masthead makes it stand out more and also makes the name recognisable. I think Audience research very important for a magazine to do, because if you don’t know what the readers like, then you could waste money on some of the ads in the magazine and the articles of bands might not be the genre that most of the readers like. When I did my audience research, I changed some of the information and layout from my first idea, because the readers had a different view of what they would like and what would be appealing to others. I also know more about how important the ‘left-third’ is on the front cover on a magazine. It’s important, because in a newsagent, as well as the masthead showing, if you have lots of short cover lines it attracts the reader and if they like a few of the cover lines, they will look through the magazine and want to buy it and read more of the articles. I didn’t use text in the ‘left-third’ because I didn’t want to cover the singer or use a different live photo. I think if I did a music magazine again, I would choose a photo for the front cover in which the band would be mainly on the right side, so I could use the ‘left-third’. For the contents page, I would add more articles and have more lures (competitions) and use stronger colours. I don’t think I would change my double page spread too much, because I really like the layout and the way the main photo is integrated with the text, although I would probably use a photo of the whole band, instead of just the lead singer. 1,632