J Parsley evaluation

AS Media Studies- Music Magazine Evaluation Question 1: Conventions My media project uses an extensive variety of different conventions in order to sustain its professional look. I believe I used at least 10 different conventions to ensure that my media work would look proficient and expensive. By using these conventions, I believe I have helped to create my own styled identity and hopefully by doing this, I have attracted an indie/mainstream audience. The conventions I have used are as following; Masthead and title: This is a title, which appears on every magazine In order for it to become its own, well-known brand. It is a fixed title that Is in the same position in each edition. It is extremely important to have a Masthead as it defines the look of a magazine, making it visually Appealing to the eye of the reader. If a masthead is appealing, it is More than likely to catch the reader’s attention. I have used my masthead to Attract a younger range of adults/teenagers. I’ve done this by presenting Connor, A young adult, with a guitar pulling a childish, fun-loving face. This hopefully will Attract a younger audience. I have also placed the ‘B’ in ‘subverse’ behind Connors head like the world wide magazine VIBE (shown to the right).

VIBE attracts a young audience and by using A young model on the front of my Magazine, I have done the same. My model is in an unusual and expressive pose.

This should hopefully attract a younger Audience too. The fact that my model Is also topless also presents him as a young, Fit individual, this again counteracting The young image he portrays.

Cover Lines: Cover lines are short phrases placed on the front of the magazine Which describe briefly what to expect inside the magazine. It is extremely Important that a magazine has cover lines as it attracts a reader and shows the Inside ‘gossip’ that the reader should be interested in. The cover lines attract us To a magazine because they show us a readers what to expect and what is to Be featured inside the magazine. In my magazine I’ve used cover lines in the Colours of blue and white to attract my reader. I’ve also used different font sizes to Attract the reader.

Drop Caps: Drop caps are the first letter of a paragraph in a magazine that is larger than the following Letters and usually is enlarged to ‘drop’ down two or more lines into the next paragraph.

These causes empathise on the text and show the reader where to start reading from. Drop caps are very common within magazines and are used as a professional technique to draw the reader’s eyes to the start of the paragraph. In doing this many magazine incorporate drop caps in different ways to add stylistic personification or a general theme to the article. When taking into consideration how I was going to incorporate a drop cap into my article, I decided to stay with the original method in which the drop cap only drops around 3 or 4 lines, at the start of the article. I felt that this suited my article better than trying something a lot more vivid, as I wanted to keep a professional and constant theme.

Pull quotes: Pull quotes are used a quotation or excerpt from an article that is typically placed in a larger or distinctive typeface on the same page, serving to entice readers into an article or to highlight a key topic. The term is principally used in publishing. When considering the position and style of my pull quote, I took into consideration its importance within connection to the article, a long side this I had to ensure it fitted the theme and did not look out of place. I added a small graphic to the page and placed my pull quote within this. The quote also had to be related to my article, this is why I had to take care when selecting my quote, so it made sense.

Kicker: the kicker is a small phrase which is usually placed just above the headlines. It is normally in a smaller font that the actual headline, the kicker in my magazine is used to introduce the section of writing below it. A kicker is a type of visual ‘sign post’ which ‘leads’ the reader to what the article below it is about. This helps the reader to understand what is to be found in the textual information below. In my magazine I have used the kicker ‘MK’s big story from start to now’. My kicker guides my readers and helps them to understand what is going to be discussed in the paragraphs below.

Colour scheme and house style: Column structure: Magazines use column structure to set out pieces of information into smaller chunks, making it more appealing to the eye of the reader. For example, if a reader was to be presented with a long chuck of lengthy writing with no column structure, it would look daunting and almost anaesthetically pleasing to the eye. However, if you were to be presented with columns that are broken up into smaller chunks, an individual is more likely to want to read this as it looks easier to read.

Question 2: Representation There are many ways in which my magazine represents my target audience. Some of these involve the following techniques: -

Title Content Theme/ House Style Language Use of images Purpose

When taking all of these into consideration I had to ensure that they coincided with my target audience. My target audience were mainstream/ Indie, when it come to this I carefully selected my title and theme.

My magazine title being ‘Subverse’, I thought it would work well when bending towards the more indie side of my target audience, I felt as if it suited the context and style of my magazine as well as being an original sort of name. My theme was based along a basic colour scheme, including greys, blacks, whites and blues. I felt as if all the dull illusive colours like grey, black and white suited the mainstream media audience I intended to aim my magazine at, however when this is all complimented by the blue, it gave the magazine a very highlighted and subjective feel. I also had the constant squares and abstract shaped positioned throughout my magazine, which gives a good example of a constant style.

Another thing I had to take into consideration was the use of language and font. Although there is no real evidence of slang or phrases that only certain social groups would understand, the layout and general formal speak suits the mainstream and indie audience. The reason for this is if I am directing my magazine to a mainstream target, it is an audience that involves all sorts of people, therefore speaking formally, well and punctuated gives the professional feel I was aiming for, it is also a bonus that no matter what social group may read this magazine, they will still be able to understand the use of language.

I also had to take into care what font I wanted to use in order to maintain a professional feeling to my magazine, in doing this I used the font ‘Cordia New’, this is a very plain, bold and modern looking font, so I believe it fitted well with my magazine.

My use of images involved that of someone who looks very indie, this of course was done out of preference in order for my magazine to fit, if I were to add a picture of someone who looked like a pop or punk fan, it would not work with my intentions for my magazine. After taking around 50 – 60 photos, I carefully selected the photos I felt looked best and represented what was on the page. My use of images involved that of someone smoking, my article was based around the typical rock star lifestyle that involves the use of drugs, this shows how I am relating my images back to the article in position.

Finally the purpose and meaning of the articles, and contents within the magazine have to suit its target audience. To do this I had to find out and research what my target audience looks for when reading magazines, watching the news, and generally what they are trying to find out. From this I included things such as related articles, related artists etc.

Question 3: Institution “What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?”

I am lead to believe that Bauer Media would distribute my magazine. I believe this for a few different reasons which I will explain in great depth below. Bauer media is one of Europe’s largest privately own publishing groups. This group offers over 300 different magazines in 15 different countries, it is also an online business and is on the TV and different radio stations including KISS FM and MAGIC. Firstly, my magazine is characteristically mainstream, offering different genres of music including both R&B and Rap music. Bauer Media offers chart music by using their radio station KISS FM. KISS FM includes R&B styled music and therefore I believe there’s a niche in the market from my R&B related magazine. My target audience is also aimed at a young audience (18-24) and believe that Bauer Media aim there publishing at people around this age. Bauer Media are an extremely influential media group, offering over 80 diverse brand names to their audience. I believe my magazine fits into the young lifestyle of many of their readers and believe people will be extremely interested in a magazine that offers a variety of different music types and the musician’s backgrounds and why young people are highly influenced by their idols.

Question 4: Target Audience Demographics: Age: 19 Gender: Female Class: Middle (C, B) Job: Hair dresser Psychographics: Music Taste: Indie Rock Films: Twilight Shop: Hollister Relationship status: Single

When choosing my demographics and psychographics I took into consideration my target audience research, this meant that my common purchaser had to fit in to what my target audience are seen as. When it came to music taste, age, occupation and gender, the indie style magazine targeted to an indie rock sort of social group, therefore these points were based on this. My typical reader profile symbolises a young girl of her teens (18 or 19), who generally enjoy the indie rock culture. As my magazine was not just about the music, this meant that my target audience and typical reader profile would have to involve the sort of person that looks into more detail than just the music. This is why I felt that my magazine had to be in more depth and somewhat much more articulate and formal.

Question 5: Attracting the Audience When attracting and addressing my audience, I had to take into consideration what it is they are attracted to. With regards to magazine covers, text placement, colour choice etc. It was hard for me to think of something that would draw the eyes of the targeted reader. When taking my photos for my magazine, I took this into deep consideration, whether I wanted to use a picture where my model was looking into the camera (direct address). The reason for this is when a model is directly addressing the reader it makes the reader feel as if they are engaged with the model, in most cases the models are famous artists or people, and gives the reader a sense of satisfaction knowing they are looking for them. In my magazine the model is directly addressing the audience, however he is not fully engaged with them, this is where careful selection of quotes, mast head and kickers were taken, as the reader spots the model directly addressing, they will pick up the magazine and look at the cover in more depth, now they begin to notice certain things before the other due to placement, size, colour etc. Other than the title, eyes are taken from the top, to the bottom left, to the right, then back to the top. In this cycle readers pick up quick hints as to what is inside, such as freebies, articles and exclusives. These all feed the readers attention.

With regards to colour scheme and style, I feel that the whole grey scale to the magazine is greatly supplemented by the blue, in this situation there is a lot of black and white, grey, generally dull colours that would not attract a reader, however by adding the blue which highlights and saturates the whole front cover, it gives this simplicity and originality which is something indie people look for. It can also be used to point out key words and exclusives. In this a reader can skim over the cover lines, and pick up a few words within them that are highlighted blue, and can get a very small hint what the article is going to be about, I feel that this worked really well as you can distinctively tell where your eyes are following when you look at the front cover, in this these points are all noticed straight away.

The contents of this magazine also tie in with my target audience, it talks about a young rock star growing up without his father, but as he reaches fame his life goes downhill.

He begins to experiment with drugs etc . and follows the typical ‘Sex, Drugs and Rock&Roll’ lifestyle.

As many indie cultured music lovers would attend festivals and music events, and perhaps do drugs in spite of this, I felt it was necessary to write an article on how a stereotypical lifestyle is portrayed in the eyes of the reader.

Question 6: Technologies Whilst constructing my magazine, I have developed many technological skills and know have a good knowledge of basic structure and layout for magazines at a professional level. With regards to progression with software, I have gained skills and am now much more comfortable using Adobe Photoshop, although I started with next to no knowledge on how to use it, the past few months has allowed me to progress and gain skills within this region. On top of this I have not only learnt how to use Photoshop, but have also gained access to free uploading sites such as Blogger, Flickr, Prezi, Issuu and others. These websites help when organising and structuring my coursework and how it is displayed. Blogger allowed me to create labels involving sub categories for my work. This makes it much easier to find certain pieces of work that may have to be updated or deleted by using these labels. Flickr was a very big help as it allows for you to annotate and analyse pictures. In my case I used Flickr so I could analyse other front covers and Double Page Spreads, with annotations added on screen.

Other useful skills I have gained involve using and understanding cameras and camera shots, when doing this I thought about model position, camera shot, lighting and angle. All of these things can change the way you may portray the person, if the camera shot is low and distant, this suggests the person is of superiority and dominance as they are looking down on you, if the shot is close and high this may suggest insecurity and weakness. When it came to choosing the correct choreography for my magazine, I did not want the model to look inferior or superior, that is why my pictures are taken from eye level, also I didn’t a close up or even a medium close up, because I wanted the readers to feel as if there was no emotion trying to be expressed in this picture, the only thing I wanted to express was MK’s lack of urgency towards everything, his laid back personality was expressed in this picture through facial and bodily expression, he is sort of slack on one side and is sticking his tongue out. These all suggest that he isn’t a very serious character which most people feel more comfortable about.

When comparing my college magazine cover to my final product, there is a substantial difference in the quality of work and how it is presented. On my first cover there is only few graphics, text and no effective use of images, however my final piece clearly shows technique behind how my pictures were taken, how they are displayed, how they are surrounded and general composition. My skills with Photoshop progressed as I began to understand what everything was, where everything was and then developed a few skills on magazine structure and technique. I learnt a good skill called overlaying, this is where you take an image accompanied by a black background, key the colour and overlay the picture, this was done for all of my flares and textures that are used within my magazine, I felt that these all brought a rustic feel to my magazine, so it didn’t look too modern or futuristic, as this is not what I wanted.

Question 7: Skills Development I have learnt a variety of new skills since I started my music magazine, the following our below; Photoshop: I used this programme for most of my media coursework. This programme helped me to construct my media magazine in a creative and assembled way. This is a useful programme as it helped me to set out my media magazine in the ways that I wanted to. It helped me make my magazine look professional and unique. My first magazine trial was basic and bland. This is because I wasn’t as familiar to Photoshop as I am now but my teacher enabled me to learn and embrace new skills. Below you can see my first cover page of my magazine and my final cover page. At first I only knew how to use basic tool such as text, rotations, shapes and the magic wand tool. As you can see by my final piece, I learnt to use a wide variety of tools, including; cropping, merging images together, fading out text and using shapes to create different effects. I’ve also learnt to use shot distance, different camera angles and composition.

Flickr: this programme helped me to annotate in a structured and coherent way. Before starting media I had never come across this programme before but found it extremely useful when analysing different magazine covers and posts.

I have learnt a lot during the duration of my preliminary task by making a music magazine. My teacher helped me to understand how to use Photoshop to its full extent and I believe I have shown how I have used this in my final piece. I have learnt how to use different tools such as the quick selection tool, the line tool, the custom shape tool, the background eraser tool and the blur and smudge tool. My final piece echo’s all these tools and has helped me achieve a good quality piece of work.