QUESTION 7: LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?


At the beginning of my course to media I had very low knowledge of the skills and conventions of music magazines. As the course of the year developed I began to experiment with different technologies, my skills and understanding of magazines grew.

My preliminary task was to create a college magazine with a rough contents page. As my image shows you, I h ad began to develop brief ideas and understanding when it came to creating a magazine cover. I missed out important conventions however, an issue number, competitions and much more. My use of colour was quite vague, I didn't vary the fonts so it looks rather dull and wouldn't be appealing to a potential buyer. Plus I hadn't cropped out the background, this wasn't because I decided not to, but because my understanding of photoshop wasn't high enough to do so. This caused another problem as it made text on the front cover rather hard to read as the background is quite dark itself. Furthermore my image isn't placed in the centre of the cover which doesn't make it any the more eye catching. My contents page lacks significant features. These include a title, page number, eye catching stories and a use of appealing images.

After completing my preliminary task, my knowledge developed and by the time I began designing my music magazine I had a better understanding of the technology, skills and conventional features I needed to include in them. As my images of my music magazine below show, there is a large transition from my preliminary task to my music magazine task. On my front cover I used a range of different fonts to keep it from being vague. I did use minimal colours of black and white which I discuss on my combined question 4 and 5. On my music magazine cover I placed my image central rather than on the right like I did my preliminary task. Plus I included typical conventions on my magazine front cover including a plug, masthead, menu, strapline, caption and splash. In comparison I also used photoshop to remove background on my images across my music magazine, I did this as it allowed me to be left with a white background which was an overall plan of mine. Also on my original task for the college magazine, I had used a low quality camera which then effected the quality of the picture itself. Whereas on my music magazine I used my iPhone 4 which contains a high quality camera which made the quality of my image that much better. On my contents page of my music magazine I included the title and page number. A feature I hadn't used on my college magazine. I also used a range of images, the model on my magazine was in different poses across the three products. An important note is that for our product we had to include a minimum of 4 images, I had originally only used 3, so on my contents page, as you can see, there is a small picture of another person (who in fact is myself) above a quote to reach the target of 4 images. I also used selected quotes across my music magazine products, this was another improvement as it's a typical feature used to attract your audience. My music magazine shows this great improvement from my preliminary task.

When comparing both products together there is a clear improvement from my college magazine to my music magazine. I had researched different punk rock magazines before designing my music magazine so I began to have a grasp of the type of layout and features I would include on it. Using other information helped me to think of how I want to design my magazine and looking back at my college magazine showed me features of what I did not want to include. The improvements from then to now are high in my opinion as I felt I've learnt how to grasp technologies such as InDesign and Photoshop and ways in which to create a magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread.

QUESTION 6: WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

Question 6 from will96allen

QUESTION 4 & QUESTION 5: WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?/ HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFOJDN5vERI&feature=youtu.be

QUESTION 3: WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

Question 3 from will96allen

QUESTION 2: HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product targets the particular genre of punk rock. My magazine includes typical associated features of punk rock fans, but it also challenges ideas about what they include as I'm going to discuss.

When selecting my images for my front cover of my media product I knew it was key to use appropriate images that match my selected genre. I considered mise-en-scene selecting my front cover, as my media product shows, I used a medium shot with my front cover. On the image I used very casual clothing as I feel this was an association with my punk rock target audience, they aren't considered upper class so I felt a calmed tone of clothing was appropriate. Facially I wanted my image to come across as very loud and rock passionate, that's why on my image the model (known as Randy Stitch on my product) has his tongue out along with his fingers presenting a 'rock on' motion to help present my group for this product. I also included rings, bracelets and a hat to help keep this overall idea of my social group for this product. I felt that these were important as they defined who my audience was for this particular media product, my use of mise-en-scene allowed my punk rock target audience to be easily recogniseable.

My product represents my target audience for a number of reasons, firstly because I used a minimalistic amount of colurs when designing my magazine. Black and white are two consistent colours on my front cover, contents page and double page spread. Also my product includes an electric guitar in some of the images, this reinforces this rock type magazine which is associated with my audience. Furthermore my product also has quite a basic layout, for example there isn't a highly upper class sense of reading to it. Instead it's more descriptive and basic to suit particular social groups of my magazine, my double page spread for example highlights the quote ''my life changed forever'', it's a basic use of language to engage my group to further read my prouduct.

As well as including dominant ideas about my social group for my magazine (student age punk rock supporters), I also incorporated to challenge commonly associated ideas about them. An example being would be my front cover, how a tagline reads ''Turning green day green'', the overall idea of this was to suggest that a successful musician/designer invented recycled instruments for the commonly known band 'Green Day'. I felt this was good to challenge this idea of punk rock fans being loud and noisy, I felt that the suggestion of recycling (going green) highlighted a slight calm and relaxed tone to the social group. In comparison on my double page spread I used juxtaposition on my image. On the image features an electric guitar and newspaper. These were to present this idea of recycled instruments, which suggested a sense of help to the enviroment. I felt this helped challenge a further idea of punk rockers being messy and careless. The incorporation of these two revealed a different yet challenging side to my social group that my magazine represents.

To conclude my magazine product has many typical features of a punk rock magazine through its use of colour and minimalistic language. Also through its use of ranging images. However, my magazine also challenges ideology's of my social group, this is through taglines and an image I included on my double page spread. Therefore I feel that my product presents my social group of student punk rock fans to be passionate about what they listen to, but also that they're at an age with a sense of maturity. 

QUESTION 1: IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

Question 1: In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My magazine cover.                                                    A real media product called 'Mojo'.

As you can see my product uses some features of regular media products. For example on my magazine cover (shown above, left) I use one main image, in comparison this is a typical feature of real media products. However, in some cases, other media products use more than one image on their front cover but still include a main image. Furthermore my product shows a consistent use of cover lines such as 'Turning Green Day Green'. My product has also displayed a header and footer bar, plus the price, barcode and masthead. All of which are associated conventions of real media prouducts. I've also challenged forms of media conventions on my product. I've done this through my mix of different fonts, and simplistic use of colour of black and white. In comparison, the black and white remain consistent in my designs, for example as my double page spread shows the colours are still minimal, some what challenging conventions of media products. My double page spread also holds conventions including one main image, a text bigger than all the others and columns. I've also highlighted a quote to help engage my reader. Another convention includes the first letter of the article being bigger than the text following it. I attempted to to convey conventions and challenges, a challenge on my double page spread for example is that I use a main quote as a cover line and they use another during the article. 

Contents page

This is my finalised contents page.

Magazine front cover

This is my finalised front cover of my music magazine ''MOSH''.

Double Page Spread

This is my finalised double page spread.

IMPORTANT CHANGE

As I mentioned in my last blog I noted that I'm considering making severe alterations to my cover. I have done just this. After I few hours of consideration I decided to completely get rid of my previous design work on my front cover of my magazine. So I took some photographs as shown below and am now going to start creating all three of my magazine products which will of course be blogged.

Magazine front cover - so far

This is what I've got done on my magazine front cover today, I however don't feel satisfied with it's current appearance.  I'm considering making severe alterations. 

Magazine front cover - so far

This is how my magazine front cover is coming along, I still need to add more features to it before it is complete. However, this is what I've got done today.

Music magazine: Planning

Flatplans

                                                                                              Front cover flatplan

Contents page flatplan 

Double page spread flatplan

Music Magazine: Planning

Proposal

The initial genre for my music magazine is rock. However it came to my attention that just defining it as a 'rock' magazine was too vague. So I needed a specific type of rock genre. I took into account the various types of supporters of rock, including classical and heavy metal. I didn't think this would be suitable for my magazine. I eventually came to the conclusion of my genre. I have chosen Punk Rock.  Therefore from my understanding of punk rock my target audience is going to be of student age, which is what I initially wanted. So my specific age for my music magazine has been decided to be 16-24. I think this is a reliable target audience to have as students of this age tend to have an interest in this type of punk rock genre, but to keep this as my target audience I understood I needed to include specific contents that are contemporary and appealing to them. I propose for my magazine to be about current and popular punk rock artists. I want to include a range of different musicians in this genre but also want there to be a main story on one specific musician or band. I was thinking perhaps punk rock bands like Blink 182, Evanescene, Greenday, Muse, Linking Park, My Chemical Romance etc. I still haven't decided specifically which one I want to be the main focus of my issue of the magazine I will create. I want my magazine to explore the content of what these artists have been doing currently in the music industry and offer insight to their lives in their rock lives and out of their rock lives. 

I've had a few ideas for my cover lines. I want my cover line to be effective and supportive for my magazine. My first initial idea was 'Linking Park introduce the art of guitar to primary school children'. There were many thoughts with this small idea I soon realised, firstly I found it was too long, secondly it had absolutely no comparison with my target audience as they're not primary school children, they are students. I then tried thinking of more simplistic but eye-catching ideas. One of which was 'Snapped in the act', another being 'Amuse for Muse' and 'Age is but a chord'. These I felt were good initial ideas, but they didn't just seem to fit what I was looking for, I liked the idea of having the title of a band juxtapose the cover line. I thought of different punk rock bands with names I could expand on, this gave me the idea of the cover line 'Green Day goes Green', this I thought could be an article focused on the band Green Day for this particular issue of my magazine; the article could be on them using recycled instruments to perform live shows with. I feel this is a great cover line as it has complete relation to my target audience, the band is contemporary, popular and the cover line offers such depth into the story and would hopefully attract my audience to purchase the magazine. Of course, as well as having an appealing cover I needed an appealing title. I found deciding on a title was very hard, not only did it need to relate to my magazine but it also needed to be a word or phrase that could be said and someone could instantly know that's my music magazine. Names I thought of varied completely, for instance an initial idea for a title was 'WHAM', I liked this as I felt it reflected the noise of instruments, however of course 'Kerrang!'s' title resembles this, also I felt this wasn't very appealing. It just lacked interest in my opinion. My thoughts furthered and I came up with names such as 'R3JECT, RUN WITH GUNS, LOST INNOCENCE, JOKED, UTILITY AND SPACE, FIRED STRINGS, AMPLIFIED' as well as a lot more, again I felt these lacked interest. None of these either seemed to share a comparison with my magazine excluding 'AMPLIFIED'. In regards to the idea of 'AMPLIFIED' I thought that perhaps this would be the title I'd use, it did link to my magazine in the music sense that they use amps, it also reflects the punk rock type of genre. But I felt that it didn't necessarily relate to how the audience of my magazine respond to music my magazine offers. I wanted my title to both reflect the music and the individuals. It was then that I decided what my title would be, I decided upon 'MOSH'. I picked this title as it's a simple phrase, which is catchy and relates both to the music and audience. Mosh-pitting is often popular at music conventions and an associate of punk rock, which is why I feel it’s a perfect title to have for my magazine.

I am rather inclined to use quite a distorted type of font, I want it to be depicted and bruised so that in a way it reflects the contents of a mosh-pit. I feel the font of my title would reflect this. Also I feel that this is a rather punk approach to take in relation to punk rock. It makes the magazine stand out more and seem rather interesting. I had ideas for the mast head being perhaps a number of instruments, but I felt this is too complex to include on a front cover. So I took into consideration having quite a minimalistic masthead for effect, I thought perhaps having quite a dark banner with a guitar neck visible. I still haven't one hundred percent decided that I'd use this. But currently this is my aim. As my ideas began to fluctuate I then considered potential taglines, I understood they needed to be appealing and have a strong relation to my magazine; these are a few examples of some I originally thought off: Insight To The Best Of The Best, Jammed Read, Ultimate Stories and Music’s Most Appealing. I liked these initial ideas but of course I didn't use them, my chosen tagline is 'Read To The Beat'. I find this is quite simply effective as it about summarises up that all information in this magazine is in regards to music (the beat).

In addition, I plan to publish my magazine at the start of September and then through into the next academic year. I have chosen this date simply because September marks the month in which students either start or continue their academic career. I feel this is an effective as most students are on the move, which allows this magazine to be noticeable when they could be buying lunch for instance. Also I feel the cold month of September relates to the black and white colours I plan to include on my magazine. I plan to only have one image on my front cover. I will include more on the contents and double page spread however. But for my cover I only want one image of an individual playing preferably an electric guitar, I want to keep it as minimal as possible for effect. My thoughts on getting this image is that I could find someone suitable enough to be on my cover, I personally own an electric guitar so I could supply that as a prop.

My music magazine would be published monthly. Specifically at the end of each month, I want this as it allows my magazine to some up what's been happening in the music industry that past month. Also I want the dimension of my magazine to be regular like Kerrang!'s for instance, typically 8.5 x 11. I want it to be regular because I have no means on decreasing or increasing any page size to other music magazines, I don't think this is necessary in regards to getting a buyer for my magazine which is why it will remain a regular size.

I plan to use the same colour scheme on my contents page, as I am my front cover page. I wish to stick to the black and white colours with hints of other darker colours. Again, I want to stick to one image on my contents, if I feel it's necessary to include more then I shall. But I don't want to make it too complex, I think for my magazine just having one central focus will work effectively. In order to get my images I plan to use either a friend-family member, I will personally supply them with props and shall take the photographs of them in a plain background making it easy to work on. 

For a long time now I've been researching different music magazines ranging from Q to Kerrang! etc, I've grasped an understanding of different approaches music magazines take to appeal to their target audience. Initially I didn't really perceive the importance of particular features on magazines, however upon my research on a target audience I soon learnt that certain things are compulsory to include in a magazine, for example I learnt that a magazine publisher such as Q wouldn't use heavy metal images on it's magazine, as it doesn't appeal to a heavy metal audience nor young individuals. It's more an older adult based with calmer images, such as gentleman and acoustic guitars. I also learnt that formats on a magazine are very important, the layout is key when you want to catch an audiences' eye, which is why from my research I will include a central image on my front cover. All of my undergoing research has shown me overall that there are specific approaches to creating my magazine, now that I'm nearly ready to start designing my magazine I am going to consider all I've learnt and incorporate what I find important into my magazine.  

Music Magazine: Planning

Initial ideas

I'm currently debating through a range of ideas for my music magazine. I'm considering the colours to use, images, fonts etc. Some of my initial thoughts include:

• A medium image of an individual on their own playing the electric guitar (the note being a power chord).
• A mix if white and black colours on the page. Nothing too bright or dull. 
• Title partly being behind image.
• Strapline being a separate colour to black and white, perhaps red. 
• Smaller images beneath main, to indicate other contents of magazine.
• Price being displayed on the upper-right of magazine cover. 
• Normal dimension.
• Display a couple of tagline's to offer more insight into the magazine. 
• Everything included aims specifically at my target audience.

Note - These initial ideas aren't permanent, they are rough ideas of what I'm considering to add to my magazine cover, there's no doubt that parts my change and different things may be added. My further ideas will be written as a proposal and will be detailed as well as comprehensive. They'll increase my ideas until I eventually create a flatplan and finally begin designing. 

Music Magazine: Research & Planning.

Conventions of a rock magazine

 

 

I am trying to develope ideas of what to include in my rock magazine. So I've decided to list some conventions I think are conventional of a rock magazine.

Front conver conventions:

Dark colours, usually black or white.
A central image of a contemporary rock artist or band.
Less darker colours for box-outs and texts.
Bold title and caption.
Secondary lead.
Masthead, usually behind the main image.
Bar code situated at the bottom right.
Price at upper right of front cover.


Contents page conventions:

One image, either band or artist.
Informative text regarding contents of magazine.
Sponsors logos.
Page number, issue number and date in corner of page.
Primarily revolves around whatever image displayed but also informs of othe features.
Black and white colours.

Music Magazine: Research & Planning

Double page spread analysis.



These are two magazine double page spreads. Both of which appeal to a young, rock audience which I will use for my magazine. But both represent this in different ways.

The first double page spread has a complete grey background. Also, only the right side of the double page spread contains information, the other fifty-percent is of a musician in a medium-shot. His appearence doesn't seem intimidating, he looks more casual and exaggerated; for instance he has two full sleeves on display, common associations with sleeves and tattoos in general is often a hardcore rock-type of individual. So though he isn't perpetuating rock musicians to be aggressive, his feartures imply he is. Understandably this may not be the circumstance, but this is what is being represented on the double page spread. The informative side of the double page spread is firstly revealed with a large bold caption reading ''DO I EVER HAVE A CASUAL FRIDAY? ABSOLUTELY!'' This caption then tells the young reader what this article is specifically about (the musicans Friday nights). The effect of this is clear as contemporary rock fans would be interested in what their favouirite musician gets up to during the week, this is why the caption is so large - to make it stand out. Throughout the text on this double page spread key points are highlighted in white font, this allows the reader to really focus on this area and take in the information it's providing them. This double page spread is to interest the audience in this particular artist, the main focus is on him and is why it's displayed on a double page.

The second double page spread concerning 'The Teenagers' has more range of colours. On this feature we can see white, blue and a small portion of black. Again fifty-percent of the double page is a photograph, this time of the rock band 'The Teenagers'. It's taken from a medium-wide shot. They're all sat down rather openly and careless. This can relate to the name of the band 'Teenagers' as a common stereotype of teens is that they're trouble and care free. Therefore we can argue this perpetuates this stereotype. The other fifty-percent of this double page spread purely relates to this rock band, it's very informative and detailed, it's in black font and displayed down the page. The only highlight on the text is in blue, this is a quote reading ''Of course we're a sexual bamd. We're teenagers and that's all they think about''. This one quote alone completely reinforces the stereotype it just stated, it's perpetuating that all teens think about is sex, this is a rather negative outlook upon teens as it implies that sex is their only concern. The fact it's a quote from the band expands this stereotype to all it's supporters, making them believe it as much as they do. Clearly this double page spread revolves around this rock band, it's very informative about them and expresses their views and expresses an increasing amount of teenage stereotypes.


Both of this magazine double page spreads share similarities and differences. I like how they've used one image to cover fifty-percent of the page, I also like that they only focus on one partoicular artist or band. I want to include this in my double page spread. I would have to consider who my target audience would specifically like and include them on my double page spread. I wouldn't want to include too many contrasting colours like blue and black for instance. Instead I would prefer having two similar colours featured on my page like white and black perhaps.

Musicb Magazine: Research & Planning

Representation in the music magazine 'Kerrang!' how both the musicians and audience's are presented.




This music magazine Kerrang! presents both the musicians and audience in a number of ways. Firstly the musician is revealed with a close-up on the magazine front cover. He's lookibng directly at us in what appears an intimidating way, it's almost like we're looking up to him; whilst he looks down upon us. This creates an impression that musicians presented on this magazine have a higher power than someone outside of that work genre. He has black eye-liner around his eyes, the connotations of black are often darkness and danger, which, some what reinforces this idea of him looking down upon us. The musician presented is also rather young, his face appears flawless with no wrenckles, spots or blemishes; just well shaved facial hair. This radiates the representation that artists in the genre of rock are rather dark, this perhaps isn't intentional but it can be argued the it's perpetuating this stereotype.

Furthermore this then implies the similar impression on the audience of this magazine. It suggests that all buyers of this magazine share that darker-outlook due to their support of rock music. It's reinforcing that stereotype. It creates the ideology of all young, rock supporters to be very dark, loud and pessimistic. This is simply from this magazines representation on the front cover, both the close-up and dark colours infer this ideology.

Music Magazine: Research & Planning

As I am deciding to design my own music magazine in the genre of Rock I am going to compare the similarities and differences of different rock music magazines. 

Decibel                                      Mojo                                          Rock Sound 

All three of these magazines are designed for the genre of Rock. Each of which with the same student/young adult target audience, however, they do also contain differences as well as similarities.

Decibel has very dark colours featured on this magazine cover such as black and red. This already as an associated link to rock music. It also as a central image of a heavy metal band 'Lamb of God', our main focus is at the leading band member placed directly in the centre, the other band members are also placed on an angle facing towards him which pin-points us into the direction of the lead. All of them are displayed standing high and looking down upon us showing an evidential dominance, this infers a sense of excellence in what they do in rock and would attract an individual of the target audience. Furthermore, placed directly behind them is fire, this would suggest a sense of danger to them, it's rather exciting and appealing to an individual and is a good way of attracting a buyer. The strapline is placed rather faintly on the left side of the heading, it reads 'Extremely Extreme'. The magazine Decibel also features a lure placed in the box-out, it reads "Doomsday Strikes Early", this reveals a more darker relation to their magazine, it relates to the strapline of 'extremely extreme' as suggesting the arrival of doomsday is rather extreme however it is very effective as it's drawing attention to their target audience and luring them to wonder why they have suggested such an unexpected proposal. 

Mojo features more light and dark red colours. There is no central image placed which differs away from the usual grid. However, despite this our eyes are still drawn to the image placed on the right side of the magazine, that of a musician playing solely to an audience and in a great hype of performing. We can just about see he's playing an electric guitar, this reinforces an association to rock music which is why it's displayed on the cover; there wouldn't be a violin displayed for instance as that has significantly minor relation to rock music and wouldn't be appealing to a rock target audience. Along the left side of the magazine cover Mojo, is a long conventional menu. It lists a long range of features in this magazine and exposes main features by making the font bigger than others. This magazine cover also contains box-outs, an example being ''Best Of 2009'', this box-out for instance suggests a summary of the best rock-type music of 2009, it's clearly displayed on the cover and is an effective way of attracting a buyer for this magazine. 

Rock Sound features a lot more lighter colours such as red and a faint blue. Our immediate attention is drawn to the central image of a musician looking directly at us (the camera), his eyes are widened and are a dark green. It reveals a clear presence he has. The other two band members are placed behind him and doesn't grab massive attention, however, it could be noted that both of their eyes are a dark blue in contrast to the dark green which also reinforces the fact that the central image has a presence and perhaps a social hierarchy. The strapline of Rock Sound is "Music With Attitude". This strapline suggests the contents of this music magazine is going to have a significant amount of attitude in all aspects. In addition the magazine also reveals some of the features in an attempt to attract their target audience, an example of this being "The Mars Volta". To a contemporary rock fan this appeals to them which is key as they are of course the target audience, this phrase is also in all capitals and a pale yellow colour which helps it stand out from the other plain colours on the magazine cover. 

Both Decibel and Rock Sound feature a contemporary band in the rock music industry. These both appeal to rock fans and the young target audience of 16 and above, being well known means they're easily recognised. So when displayed these are recognised and approached, it's then the features on the magazine that further the buyers interest. Mojo however isn't exactly as noticeable in this respect, this is because there is no central image nor band. However it can be considered that this alternative approach is effective in selling the product as it's main background is an audience the musician is performing to. Mojo also gives more insight to the features of their magazine than Decible and Rock Sound do. Mojo displays a vast amount of features on their magazine in a list if the left side of their music cover. Decible offers it's features below the central image on their front cover, whereas Rock Sound offers theirs minimally on the bottom left of their front cover, I think there is minimal insight to this magazine as they're more focused on the band 'Green Day' which practically some's up the contents of this magazine, the other displayed features are of what isn't going to be related to this band. I think this is why Mojo does contain a lot of features on it's front cover, because it has a lot to offer. In fact the strapline is 'Music Magazine' which shows it's diversity in what it will talk about as a rock genre music magazine. All three of these magazines show alternate approaches in approaching the similar target audience, all of which do this effectively. I think I can use aspects of each of these to incorporate into my rock magazine. I like for example the central image of a band leader with his members closing in on him in Decible. I also think the use of minimal colour is effective in Mojo and the focus of one particular set of artists in Rock Sound is a great way to catch my audiences eye. These elements I think are going to help bring my music magazine cover to life and make it appear realistic.