2. 1. In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real music magazines? The title of my magazine is ‘Pitch’ I thought this would be a suitable name as it is a music magazine. I kept the masthead font simple, and in a block black to make sure it stands out over the image. I wanted to keep the masthead over the image, not behind it as the image takes up most of the room anyway and I want to make sure the reader can clearly see the masthead.
3. Mise en scene of my images My front cover image was inspired by a front cover the magazine ‘Bazaar’ did featuring Katy Perry. I edited the colour and the contrast in photoshop to get my image in the same effect. I think the image is very eye catching as there is not a lot going on on the page, the image also looks better without a lot of text surrounding it. My image is a close up, only including the eyes, lips and parts of the nose. I experimented with using colour or black and white but decided it was more effective in colour.
4. Costumes, props and genre I have kept the images in my magazine very simple so I did not use any props. I have used my 19 year old sister as the model for my images, as my main audience for the magazine is teenage girls. I think the images would appeal more to girls. The make up my model wore was bold and bright, which I think fits the hip hop/RnB theme of the magazine and I have featured her as an up and coming DJ
5. Fonts and written content I used DaFont for my masthead font, and for the written text in my magazine I used fonts from publisher. The language used in my interview is friendly and chatty, to make the reader feel comfortable and to make my featured musician likeable. This is used in most music magazines as the celebrities want to gain fans from interviews. This language will appeal to teenagers as they will be influenced by celebrities.
6. Front cover, DPS and contents layout I have kept the layouts for all three parts to my magazine simple and easy to read. I have done this as my magazine is aimed at a younger audience. My front cover is one main close up image, with very little font around it. My double page spread is conventional as I have taken up one side with an image, and the other with the text. And my contents page layout is simple and has been made easy to read.
7. Conclusion Over all I have followed typical conventions of most music magazines. The magazine research I did at the beginning of the task was the main focus I used when creating my own magazine. I took aspects from each of them and applied it to my own. I liked the look of having one main image on the front cover filling the whole page, and putting the masthead over the top. I took the layout for my double page spread from the Lady Gaga interview I researched as I think using a smaller quantity of text will be more appealing to younger readers.
8. 2. How does your music magazine represent particular social groups? I have tried to aim my magazine at social groups who enjoy up-beat, hip-hop and RnB music. However I have kept it open to interpretation as I have not used many props or specific language that would only appeal to people who only like one kind of music. This will hopefully keep my audience wider and interest more people in reading it. I have used close up images, so the reader can only see the bold make up, and not the style of clothing which won’t single out particular people. My front cover is based on a front cover Katy Perry was featuring in, so her fans may see this link and be interested in reading my magazine.
9. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your music magazine and why? I would look into InterMedia partners to distribute my music magazine as they distribute Vibe magazine, which is the magazine I would like mine to be the most similar to. Vibe magazine features RnB and hip hop artists, and competes closely with Rolling Stone who also inspired my magazine. However I would prefer InterMedia to distribute my magazine, as Vibe has a wider audience range, and Rolling Stone focuses more on rap.
10. 4. Who would be the audience for your music magazine? My magazine is aimed at 15-23 year olds, and mainly females due to the images I used. However males could still be interested in buying the magazine too as I haven’t used ‘girly’ language and the colour schemes are neutral. As I want to keep my audience wider, my magazine wouldn’t be priced really high, so any of the socio-economic groups could read it. I would expect my audience to enjoy going to concerts and going out with friends. I have closely based my magazine on what genre of music I like so I would expect my audience to enjoy listening to that genre of music as much as I do.
11. 5. How did you attract/address your audience? I attracted my audience with my front cover by using one bold, bright image. I think the lack of text on the front cover is eye catching and will grab the readers attention from far away. I used familiar, friendly language throughout the magazine and especially in the interview, this will keep the audience reading the magazine. I kept my contents page black and white, as I liked this style in a magazine I researched, and I used the same front cover image to show the reader the link between the images and who is featured in the magazine. I used a bold, block colour mast head, and it was also in the same font and place on my contents page. This is to keep it the same throughout so the reader will remember the name of the magazine. I used a simple font throughout to make it an easy read. I used big bold images that take up most of the space on each of the pages. I applied some of the layouts of the magazines I researched for my magazine, for example the lady gaga double page spread, and the black and white contents page. I think my magazine would be mainly aimed at women, however I have kept this fairly open to interpretation. I have used eye catching colours so this would appeal to both males and females, however the glossy look to the front cover would appeal mainly to females.
12. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I found it challenging to use some of the software needed to make the magazine. I used PowerPoint, Photoshop, Publisher, Word, Paint, DaFont, Blogger, Slideshare and InDesign throughout making my magazine. I learnt how to edit images in Photoshop as I had never used it before. I found it made my images look a lot more professional and of a higher quality. I found it easier to copy work on to paint so I could crop the images and get them the right size to use in the magazine. I used Photoshop to edit the masthead so only the text remained so I could place it over the images. I didn’t find InDesign helpful at all as I wasn’t sure on how to use it, so for most of the time I used photoshop and powerpoint. I put most of my work onto Powerpoint, which I then uploaded on to slideshare. I think it would have been easier for me to have written straight in to blogger as slide share sometimes wasn’t working and took a long time to load.
13. 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? I do understand the conventions of magazines better after I completed the preliminary task as it helped me improve my approach to audience research. Completing the preliminary task helped me understand that the layout and design, and initially the front cover of a magazine is the main part. The front cover is what grabs the readers attention so the more realistic it is the better. I didn’t really understand how to use InDesign, so I used Photoshop, and was given help on how to edit my images and text. I used photoshop to edit my images in order to make my magazine look more professional, other wise no one would want to read it. I found that close up shots were more effective for my magazine, as I tried to keep my audience wider, so I didn’t want to include how the audience I’d expect to be reading it should look. I think the images in my magazine are the most important aspects, and the different ways I’ve edited them are important.
