Main Task - Double Page Spread.

Main Task - Contents.

Main Task.

Preliminary Task - Contents

Preliminary Task - Cover

Evaluation - Question 7.

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



From doing the preliminary task I have learnt that it takes a lot of time to edit a photograph to make it look professional, and all the small things, like making sure that you can see the text properly, using an appropriate colour scheme to fit in with the photograph and basically does the overall product look professional enough to see it alongside other leading magazines, finally does it complete its purpose to persuade people to buy it. I felt with this task that you were able to make the magazine how you wanted it to look as it was a school magazine, the conventions weren’t so restricting, so I used many colours to make it appear fun and school like.

For the preliminary exercise I found it quite restricting in terms of creativity because it had be to a school magazine, so it's features where more specific than the main task, also time was limited to lesson time. Whereas for the music magazine it was more flexiable you were able to choose a genre and create your own touches to it. For the preliminary exercise I didn't do much research as it didn't seem to be many school magazines out there. Due to all the music magazines I was able to look at front covers, contents pages and double page spreads. I researched all music magazines to start with such as Q, NME, MOJO and many more. Looking at the kind of things I liked and typical conventions, having chosen my genre I looked more closely at magazines such as Vibe and Clash.

I then got two of my friends to pose as music artists and also my sister, I wanted to get a range of different photos so my magazine was interesting. For Matt (Shyne) I took a variety, from all different angles as he was going to be on the front cover and interview – double page spread, so I thought about mise en scene the types of clothes he wore to represent a Hip Hop artist.

For Jo (Lady Red) I wanted a photograph that was a bit more fun different from the average shot so I took photos doing different poses with her hands, inspired by lady Gaga in her music videos. Eventually decided to have the one of her sitting down looking quite moody. For my sister I wanted to take close up shots of her face looking cocky, she is wearing a black coat with a oversized collar which I thought looked cool with a stripy scarf. With Photoshop I experimented more with the photographs, putting them up against different backgrounds changing the contrast making the skin tone a bit more bright to give that air brush magazine effect.

Evaluation - Question 6.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?


I have learnt from the technologies that there is so much you can do to change a photograph, I have become familiar with the software Photoshop while proceeding with the construction of my magazine. I found certain elements to Photoshop quite difficult at the start, such as using the lasso tool can be quite tricky, you have to be patient.

Evaluation - Question 5.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Core Audience;
Consists of males 16 to 24. The genre of my magazine is Hip Hop/RnB which would cover a broad range of music, lifestyle, entertainment, culture and the urban music movement. How I attracted my audience are by the following features;

• The style of my photograph, the look on my models face, this carefree attitude with his arms crossed, young men will be able to relate to him be inspired etc. I looked at other Hip Hop artists in photographs on the internet like Jay-z, Dizzie Rascal and others in magazines such as NME/Vibe/Clash and they don't tend to smile they either look quite serious, cool with this sort of care free attitude, this is what I tried to portray though my photograph.

• For the clothing of my model I thought about it a lot to attract my audience, made a decision which was a white vest, and a chain with tags on. I had to make sure his image went with the style of my magazine. His muscles are on show so this will appeal to young men as they will look up to him, want to be like him.

• I wanted the audience to instantly recognise the iconography and style of my magazine so I did this using three block colours red, black and white. All of my headlines relate to this kind of music or other famous artists in the industry, that attribute to the music industry in a positive way such as Lady Gaga.

Secondary Audience;

Consists of female around the same age 16 to 24. they are more likely to read the magazine because of 'Shyne' on the front cover has the sex appeal, these age range are likely to fancy him.

• The white vest exposing his muscles, slightly smiling will attract the females. He looks good, cool and charismatic.

• The other music headlines will attract the secondary audiences as some of them are famous music artists. Includes a double page spread of an interview with 'Shyne' this will attract young females as it offers more pictures of him and an exclusive interview.

• When producing my interview I thought about my secondary audience what they would like to read about, so I tried to think of interesting questions for 'Shyne' a representation of a famous Hip Hop artist, I looked at the interview in NME with Dizzie Rascal to see the types of interview/style of the questions and answers they give.

Tertiary Audience;

This consists of people of all ages who are into music magazines of this genre, urban music followers, people who are interested in the people in my magazine. All these features aim to attract my core and secondary audiences too.

• Using a representation of successful music artist on the front cover someone to aspire to be like.

• Using catchy headlines to attract audience “Malta Special Wozee Zozzee it's on!” I suppose this is context bound and not everyone would know what it is, but its a big MTV festival that takes place in Malta every year, so I made this one of my headlines I thought it was interesting and had a ring to it.

Overall how I address my core audience is by using someone likeable on the front cover a representation of a Hip Hop artist, sticking to three colours throughout keeping it consistent and having interesting headlines which stick to the theme of my music mag. How I address my secondary audience is using people that could represent the genre of music in a contemporary way. To attract other audiences I have just combined the core and secondary audiences.

Evaluation - Question 4.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The core audience for 'Compilation the mixed music magazine' consists of males between 16 to 24. My magazines appeals to the core audience through having an aspiring representation of a Hip Hop artist on the front cover, young males can relate to. He has a white vest with his muscles on show, looks good. He is fit, so men would want to look like him. They would also be interested in the female singers so I have used two models to be on my contents page, 'Lady Red' because she looks like a girl you would see in everyday life assessable. 'Esmee' is a representation of a RnB star the males would find her attractive, fancy her.

My secondary audience consists of females aged 16 to 24, the magazine will appeal to females, because 'Shyne' on the front cover is good looking, quite sexy which will appeal to women around this age. Women that are interested in this style of music Hip Hop/RnB. I also used two representations of two female music artists which they would be interested in, females to look up to and aspire to be like.

Finally the last audience type is males and females of any ages who are interested in Hip Hop/ RnB music, Rhythms and Blues, contemporary RnB. Hip Hop is music which has a deeper meaning, discusses concerns of political, social and personal issues.

Evaluation - Question 3.

What kind of media institute might distribute your media product and why?

The kind of media institution that would distribute my media product would be Emap because it offers a wide range of media products; I think this i

nstitution would be suitable for my magazine as it does other magazines such as the popular 'Q the music magazine', and MOJO etc.

“Emap started life as a local newspaper company in 1947. Today Emap is a global media group, playing a crucial role in giving the retail, media, finance, fashion, health, education, government and automotive sectors the essential news, analysis and access they need to succeed.”

Even though 'Q' magazine has a good cross selection of the audience, a broader target audience its a great music magazine with high standards of photography so this would be why I would like Emap to distribute my magazine, the quality is similar to 'Q', I have a more specific target audience, and the genre of my music magazine is different but it offers variety 'Q the music magazine.' 'Compilation the mixed music magazine.'

Evaluation - Question 2.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The model represented on the front cover of my music magazine is 19, a Hip Hop artist, who has already made it in the ind

ustry having successful numbers ones and an album release. My core audience is males 16-24 but obviously other people will buy the magazine. But its aimed at young, urban followers of the Hip Hop culture. Secondary audiences could be Females that are into RnB and Hip Hop women of a similar age. 'Shyne' the model on my front cover of my magazine ismixed race, working class male represents his age group and gender as successful and inspiring, he portrays his race in a positive light, hard working and determined to well. This audience will be able to look up to but relate to him. He is good looking so young males will be able to connect with him, a large female fan base. He is represented as a Hip Hop artist such as Jay-z, Chipmunk, Chris brown etc.

'Lady red',the model I have used to on the contents page of my magazine is a white female aged 18, represents an RnB artist in the music industry from a previous girl band she is going solo, again from a working class background made it big, she will appeal to my target audience males, she is pretty but her style is what makes her very cool, different like Musician Pink in her style and look.

Whereas 'Esmee' is the stereotype of an RnB artist beautiful/stunning which my target audience males will want to look, females will aspire to be like her. She is represented as young artist in in the industry but a well established artist having hit records and three albums. She portrays her age and gender as being successful women. Like either Cheryl Cole on her solo work or Rihanna.

Evaluation - Question 1.

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


I have looked at conventions that are successful in existing magazines, to follow, developing my own magazine, so that the audience I am targeting will recognise the conventions. For the front cover of my magazine I have used a model which fits in with the look of a hip hop artist. He is wearing a white vest exposing his muscles this is a fashion trend and often worn by artists in the industry (Chris Brown).

Therefore he fits the criteria to be able to be on a music magazine, which follows real conventions as he

looks like a hip hop artist. The colour used on my magazine instantly establishes that it’s a music magazine as I used black, white and red The real media products that usually use these colours are 'NME' and 'Q'. I use three block colours keeping it consistent throughout. I’ve also realised through my research all music magazines stick to three colours, sometimes more for the text/headlines but usually it’s just three. Magazines such as vibe use conventions such as famous music artist modelled on the front cover, so I have done this too, they also have the title of the magazine quite short easy to remember and spread across the top of the page, so I have also stretched my title however my title challenges forms as its quite a long; “Compilation, the mixed music magazine”, its a mouthful but I think it sounds professional, I used 'mixed' in the title to explain that my magazine isn't just one genre like 'Hip Hop' or 'RnB' its a conglomeration of the two. I created a music magazine about music artists, fashion, sounds, lifestyle culture and the urban music movement, this is clear through the headlines I use on the front cover of my magazine.

A theory I could apply to my print would be Laura Mulvey (since the 1970's) 'The male Gaze' – to refer to the way you look at the image of people on screen/print. Jonathan Schroeder (1998), “To gaze implies more than to look at – it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze”Even though the theory looks at how males look at females this is still useful, to look at in terms of the gazer how the audience look at someone.

My magazine is direct address to the viewer of the magazine, the facial expression of my model is carefree slightly smiling but also seductive. The ways my media product uses conventions of real media products is; I used all of my own photographs in my music magazine, for the contents page I related it to the front cover headlines, sticking with red and black colours to give it continuity. I follow conventions by making my magazine as user friendly as possible, making it easy to access the pages people want to read about, for my double page spread I linked it to an interview with the model on the front The front cover is the most important in terms of advertising, as its the first thing people look at therefore attracted to clutch it in there hands and look more closely, it has to have something which catches the customers eye, makes the magazine stand out amongst others. This is usually done by having a certain role model, someone in the public domain that people are simply fans of; popular celebrities, pop stars, models etc.

So thinking about this, as I was producing my music magazine, I indented to have someone on the front cover who represented music in a contemporary way and looked like hip hop artist. With this in mind I did some research looking at how hip hop/RnB artists looked in photographs, especially in magazines such as 'Vibe', 'NME', 'XXL'. This is why the person I chose to be on the front cover has a cocky, cool, confident look. On existing magazines this is what sells it the person on the front so I knew I had to have someone that people would like.

Deciding on a photograph.

I've taken different photographs of Jo from lots of different angles, shes going to feature on the contents page. I've placed her on a dark background at the minute but I'm going to experiment a little before I decide. I think the trainers look really good against a dark background as there white, but her hair doesn't look so good as you can tell I've cut her out, using the lasso tool on photo shop, it's slightly lighter in parts so it really shows up, I need to consider this when choosing a background colour, however I might just use a white background.

Superimposed.

I was just playing with pictures, got the background from google changed it to black and white, superimposed Matt over the top obviously you know it's not real but that's what I like about it, because I've made Matt largely out of proportion to the picture.

Kings of leon.

I really like this background it looks really cool, however this would be extremly difficult to do and photograph so I'll have to think of something else, at the minute I'm thinking just a plain grey background.

Just an Idea.

This is one of my idea's for the front cover, however I think it looks kinda cool but it does look fake, you know it's not one photograph. I have got the graffiti from google images and placed Matt over the top. I'm not sure it fits the conventions of a music magazine either, plus I think it would be hard to read the text, unless I had it a bright colour.

Graffiti.

This image is from google. I'm thinking about different backgrounds I could have on the front cover with my model over the top. Previously I wanted to have a busy background because often 'Q' magazine tend to do busy backgrounds but it all comes together, but I'm not sure this idea would go together.

Matt.

I've started taking photographs for my front cover thinking about different shots, I've used an effect called fresco for this image I think it looks quite effective, but I'm not sure it will fit in with the front cover so this is something to think about.

And Again.

I've taken photographs as he was putting his hoodie on, I was thinging for my double page spread, it could be a photoshot, an action shoot of him. I've messed about with the images having them horizontal, diagonal. I put Matt against a white background to make him the main focal point.

Photshop Experiments.