The Evaluation.
For my AS foundation portfolio production, I chose the print brief. In order to fulfil this ask I started by examining existing media texts of the same form.
Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My front cover uses conventional and unconventional conventions to create a new style of indie/rock magazine. NME has used a large masthead to dominate the top left of the magazine. In my magazine I have also used a large masthead; however I made it larger so it stands out more. My masthead is white against a black background as this creates a bolder effect. I used a simple, but dominating font (as NME have) so my magazine is easily recognisable as a rock genre.
Conventionally the bar-code is at the bottom right of a magazine, I followed this same rule as it’s easy to find and out of the way, however I placed the date, issue number, and price at the top right. I did this because I didn’t want the bottom right to be too cluttered up, also the date, price and issue no. stands out more at the top. Placing the price and date next to the magazine would catch the readers eye as they would look to see the name of the magazine, and also then see the price, date, and issue number right next to it, which is convenient for the audience. The price of my magazine is £2.00, considering my target audience is 15-25, and they may not have jobs yet, they can’t afford a magazine which is too high priced. Whilst thinking about the price for my magazine I researched into the magazines I analysed (NME, Kerrang! and Rocksound).Kerrang! charges £3.20, NME £2.20, and Rocksound is £3.90. I placed mine at £2.00 as this was a reasonable price considering they charge above £2.00.
The main headline/cover line is placed to the left third of my magazine. This is conventional as most magazines place it here so it dominates most of the page, showing this is the most important and juicy headline. I used red apostrophes to make my headline stand out more, using a quote also attracts the readers as they want to know direct information on their favourite celebrities, and a quote initiates this. Having a large masthead to the left grabs the reader’s attention, rather then it being smaller and unnoticed. I used a black font as the background is a whitey/cream colour, which enhances the main headline to stand out. Black is also a very dominant, in charge colour, that can add a meaning behind the main headline, ‘this is what I’ve always wanted’ she’s in charge, and got what she wanted. I also wrote the artists name under the quote in a large red box, with white colour writing. This stands out to the audience and would attract them if they saw the name from far away.
For my skyline I used a red background with bands featured in the magazine above it, with black text. NME used one bold sentence, however I wanted to show that there was a variety of bands featured in my magazine so I didn’t make it as dominant as NME has. However, I used a red background as this stands out and could represent a ‘love’ for music.
For my ‘splash’ I didn’t want to use a conventional, boring image of a model just sat in front of the camera, like NME has. On my blog ‘initial research’ I looked at Hayley Williams, and the poses she used when featured on a magazine, she stood casually, yet used her arms to create a rebellious body language. I wanted to make my model look rebellious and ‘in your face’, so during the photo-shoot for my images I worked with different poses. I like the image I have used as my model is giving strong eye contact to the audience, this could show she is in control. One of her arms is dominating the camera lens, whilst the other is hiding her face, this could show that she’s hiding and wants the reader to buy the magazine to find out more. I used a medium shot which helps us identify the type of clothes she’s wearing. NME have used leather, which symbolises rock. In my magazine I asked her to wear a check shirt, which symbolises indie/rock. I asked my model to wear eyeliner but not too heavy as I didn’t want my magazine to be seen as heavy metal. During the process of creating my magazine, I asked audience what I could change; the majority said the image was in bad quality. I agreed with this so took some more photos and created a new draft in my magazine (which you can see on my blog). However, when I’d created this it didn’t look right; looking at more audience and teacher feedback I came back to the original image. If I was to do this again I would make sure the camera I used was in better quality.
I used a teasing content to attract my readers to buying the magazine. Like NME
I didn’t use many cover-lines like NME, Kerrang! and Rocksound as I wanted my magazine to be seen as striking and eye-catching, yet secret and ambiguous. Under my main headline I used a small cover-line in a clear, black font. I used a bright white font on part of the words ‘new album’ to catch the reader’s attention.
I also wrote a subtitle under the masthead, summarizing what is featured in the magazine. I wrote, ‘news, festivals and interviews’ I didn’t want the subtitle to give too much away but I wanted it to appeal to the audience.
I used sell lines such as ‘EXCLUSIVE’ and ‘PLUS’ to pull the reader into looking at what the content is. I placed ‘EXCLUSIVE’ at the top left third, above my main headline. I wanted it to stand out so I used a bright white squared background, and bright red font for the text. White could symbolise innocence, so it could be striking to the audience as something that’s innocent could have done something bad as it says ‘exclusive’ over the white box. I conventionally placed it on a slant so it shows the magazine is rebellious and doesn’t place everything neat and tidy. I also used another sell line ‘plus’ above my cover-line in a bright yellow font on top of a black background. Yellow is a dominantly bright colour that stands out on my magazine as everything else is black, white and red. Using yellow shows importance of the cover-line and could tell the audience it’s not to be missed out on.
In my contents page I used several images, this creates a varied approach to my magazine instead of it looking like it’s concentrated on just one person, like Rocksound has. Using a varied amount of images is conventional as this makes the magazine look more realistic. I made sure the mise en scene fit with my magazine and placed them on a red background to make sure they stood out. I have used a features section just has Rocksound has. However, Rocksound has only used one subheading whereas I have used a lot to show my magazine is full and has a lot of information inside. I have placed the ‘NEWS’ section at the top as I think this is the most important subheading. This is because the audience want to know what’s going on in the music world and all the exclusive updates. I have used a reviews section to advertise more artists, this will enable my audience to be more interested in my magazine if they are discovering new and old artists each week. Rocksound hasn’t used a Reviews section which is unconventional. I have used numbers (without the word page) just as Rocksound has, I did this as it stands out to the audience more and it’s a quick way to show the page numbers. I used a bright red font to make them stand out on a white square background. I didn’t include an editor’s letter as I though this wasn’t an important convention to add to my magazine. The audience want to know about the music, not the editor. I also didn’t use this convention as the majority of the magazines I have been analysing and researching didn’t include one.
Q2-How does your media product represent particular social groups?
On my double page spread I used a large headline to attract the reader’s attention. I didn’t dominate the page with the headline like Kerrang! magazine has, as I wanted the content to be seen as important too. I used a thick, bold font for the word ‘ROCKSTAR’ as I wanted it to stand out against the rest of the page. I used a white font against a black background as this stands out and also the colours contrast with each other. Black represents anger and dominance, which white represents innocence. The subliminal message could be that she’s still innocent but is pursuing her rock career. I used a large dominating photo like Kerrang! has as I wanted to show that the artist was dominating the page and having her say. Kerrang! I used a black dress as I wanted her to be girly yet stick to my house style colour, of black. I asked her to hold a Vinyl record as this gives an indie edge to my magazine. The vinyl record was already red in the middle, but if not I was going to change it using Photoshop to fit the house style of my magazine. Kerrang!’s artist isn’t giving eye contact to the audience, however I wanted to make sure my artist was giving eye contact as this shows she’s engaging with them. It also shows power and control, which fits with the content of the article itself (she changed her career path). Kerrang! uses a small introductory line but blends in with the rest of the article. For my magazine I used a slanted font to make my intro stand out. Kerrang! hasn’t used credit on their double page spread but I think this is because the magazine is highly popular, and the majority of people will already know who the editor is. However I wanted my magazine to look a little conventional so and I added photos credit and the editor’s name (by-line) at the end of the article, this gives a more professional finish to my magazine. Also my magazine is new so a lot of people won’t know who the photographer and editor is. If I was to do this again I would change the editor/photographers name as I’ve only used one which doesn’t look realistic. Kerrang! hasn’t used a drop cap on their magazine which is unconventional. I used a by line as I think this makes the beginning of the article stand out. The first letter of the name being in a large font also shows they are dominating the page. After looking at research I noticed some magazines used very large dominating drop caps that took up the full page, however as I have already used a dominating photo I didn’t want my double page spread to look too cluttered so I used a medium sized drop cap. I used page numbers at the bottom of the page to show a smoothly running magazine and be easily able to find the page number. I used some anchorage under my main image as this helps to tell the audience what the photo is about. Kerrang! hasn’t used anchorage, but they used a pull quote which could also be seen as anchorage in a way. Kerrang! placed the pull quote at the top left as you can immediately see this. However, I wanted to be conventional and place it in between my article as it’s directly in the middle and you can see it straight away.
To represent the indie/rock social group I tried to make sure the mise en scene in my magazine used laid back but rock style clothes. I dressed my models in checked shirts, a black dress and the male in a hat, jumper and jeans this type of costume signifies grunge or alt. rock . I used black on my magazine as this is stereotypically a rock colour, you wouldn’t see bright pink colours used as this doesn’t fit the conventional colour themes and mise en scene of an indie/rock magazine. I also used slang in my magazine double page spread interview to represent the younger audience, this would make my audience feel like the magazine is made for them and feel part of a group.
Q3- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Looking at research Bauer Media would distribute my magazine as it publishes magazines such as Kerrang! and Q. Having Bauer media distribute my product would mean the audience would fit my target audience and would be attracted to my product as my magazine products share the same genre, colour scheme and conventions of KERRANG! and Q and Rocksound. I also found that KERRANG! has sales of over 60,289 and online traffic of 435,000 Allowing Bauer Media to distribute my product would mean KERRANG! readers could be attracted to my magazine giving it a high audience viewing percentage. However, distributors such as Conde Nast have a different target audience. Their magazines focus on leisure and well-being. Having Conde Nast distribute my magazine would be controversial as the audience wouldn’t expect to see an indie/rock magazine being distributed through Conde Nast. I could use this to my advantage and gain a wider target audience. However, my main focus would be allowing Bauer Media to distribute my product as there would be a definite target audience of 15-25 that liked the genre of music magazine I would be creating.
4- Who would be the audience for your media product?
My magazine will be aimed at the younger audience, around 15-25. This is because the bands related to my genre have an audience of around this age. I also will be aiming it at a younger audience as the content will be loud and in your face, like Kerrang! and an older audience may not appreciate this as much. The gender will be both male and female as the research I have already looked at include a male and female audience to bands such as You Me At Six, The Kooks, and All Time Low. However research I found shows rock/indie has a higher percent in the male audience than female. The magazine will be aimed at a rock/indie audience, featuring bands such as Arctic Monkeys, You Me At Six, and The Smiths. I will also feature big bands such as The Who and Rolling Stones as was and still are seen as rock legends, this could attract an older rock fan base audience without intending to. Audience stats: 60% male 40% female.
5- How did you attract/address your audience?
To attract my audience I made sure I had interesting content on my front cover, contents page and double page spread- such as a puff that showed a popular festival lineup, standing out on a red background, which conotated leadership and power. I also included an advertisement of an exclusive artist interview on the front cover, and the latest news on my contents page. I used an image that would stand out and draw my audience into purchasing the magazine. I looked at stereotypes, price, demographics, and physio graphics to attract my audience. I looked into magazines already published such as Kerrang!, Rocksound and NME. The colours Kerrang! and NME used were blacks, whites, reds and a bright yellow to attract the audience. Red could represent passion and love for the music, whilst black represents control, rock and standing out. However, ROCKSOUND used bright colours such as yellow, orange, red and white. (Pictures above) I didn’t want to follow the colour scheme ROCKSOUND had used as although this was a conventional different route to representing rock, I wanted to make sure my magazine still had rock stereotype and conventions used. So to attract my audience I didn’t use vivid, bright colours. I concentrated on red, black and white – which rock fans would be attracted to as magazines such as Kerrang and NME use these. Next I looked at clothes that rock/indie artists wore, that would attract my audience into wanting to buy my products. Leather and black jeans represented rock, and checked shirts with light blue jeans were what the ‘indie’ style was wearing. To mix these both together I dressed my model in a checked shirt and black jeans, this contrasted both of my chosen genres together to draw my audience into knowing it’s an indie/rock magazine. Stereotypes such as rock girls wearing heavy makeup and perfect skin was also used in my product. I asked my model to wear eyeliner but not too much, I then used Photoshop to create a clear skin look for my model. Looking at demographics I knew my target audience were 15-25. They would want to see a young male/female on the front cover, not someone older, as Kerrang, Rocksound, NME and Q always have young artists on the front page. I thought as Kerrang! statistics showed there was a higher populated audience, I should have a female on the front cover. I thought this would attract male audience more, yet woman would still read it. I also knew that most of my audience were ‘Casual labourers, unemployed’ or ‘semi-skilled or unskilled manual workers’, So I needed to make sure that they would be able to afford my product, yet still show it wasn’t a cheap magazine. I charged my magazine at £2.00. This is because I researched into some magazine prices, Kerrang! is £3.20, NME is £2.20, and Rocksound is £3.90 and my magazines relate to these, so I tried to choose a price around the same cost. I also cut down my price from the magazines mentioned as my target audience are young and might not be able to afford a £3.90 magazine all the time, making it cheaper will also sell more as expensive magazines tend not to get that much publicity unless they are extremely popular such as Kerrang!. To attract my audience I would publish my magazine every week or two weeks on a MONDAY. I chose Monday as this Is the first day of the week and would allow the readers to see everything that's going on in the music industry during that week and have first look at new songs and tickets etc. Looking at physio graphic I looked at the needs of my audience. I think my audience group would be ‘inner directed groups’ and ‘groups driven by needs’. Indie/rock audiences didn’t used to be that popular, making them a niche audience, this would lead to my audience being inner directed groups – they would want to be different and individual. To fulfil their needs I tried to make my magazine look individual. To do this I created my own new layout style contents page, which I thought didn’t look the same as other magazines as the content was based around a vinyl record. However, some of my audience just want to read my magazine as they feel like music is part of who they are and fulfils their needs, this shows my audience are also in the group ‘driven by needs’. To fulfil their needs I used puffs such as ‘Reading festival line up’ as this would be what my audience want to be looking for. I also used an offer on my contents page to attract my audience, this would be great for students as they wouldn’t have that much money but would see they could save over £50, making it seem cheaper for them. I wrote in a text box ‘Subscribe now and save over £50* across the year! OFFER THIS WEEK ONLY!” I thought doing so would encourage my audience into subscribing to the magazine, giving me a guaranteed audience for a year. I also used audience feedback; this would help me determine what the audience thought of my magazine, and what needed to be changed. I asked people my age (16/17) as they was part of my target audience. I also asked adults for more varied opinion on my magazine. As shown on my blog after each draft there is audience feedback.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I think I have learnt a lot from the first few stages of making my college magazine to producing my music magazine products. For example, looking at my ‘WYKE NOW!’ college magazine, the cover lines are hard to see as I haven’t put shapes in the background to make the text stand out. Then take a look at my front cover music magazine, I used shapes to make my cover lines stand out. I have learnt more about Photoshop during the process, including many different tools which I explained above. If I was to do this college magazine again I would add a blur to the background so my model stands out against the busy background, signifying her importance. I also learnt about representation. For example, in my college magazine I have only used basic mise en scene to represent my college magazine. In my music magazine I concentrated more on the colours and image of my model to represent the rock genre. I also learnt more about language in the process of creating my music magazine. The age group for my college magazine and my music magazine is around the same age, however you can see I haven't used slang on my college magazine contents page, it looks very formal. However, on my contents page I have used the sentence 'concert mess up' and words such as 'you' and 'do you agree?' this makes the audience feel more involved and gives the contents page a more laid back feel.
I also learnt about conventions on the front cover, for example subheadings such as ‘News, reviews, and features’. I also learnt about the text under the subheadings – in my contents page there’s not much information included which gives the effect there isn’t much information in the magazine and may look cheap. In my music magazine I have made sure that I have a lot of information under the subheadings so my magazine looks packed and have a lot of context included. I have also learnt about the different images I should include in my contents page, this allows my magazine to look varied instead of one image (like my college magazine has) which looks boring.
