Evaluation Question 7

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

I feel as though my understanding of conventions has vastly improved and why the use of certain conventions are important in creating an authentic looking magazine for example, the inclusion of a barcode is one of the main features that I included in my final magazine and not my preliminary work, this is an example of my progression in knowledge of magazine conventions. 

I used my preliminary task as a learning experience as the finished product was uneasy on the eye due to the colours of the text and the clothing of the model clashing, this helped to teach me of the importance of pre-planning and choosing a suitable colour palette that prevents colour clashes whilst also looking interesting and suitable for the theme of my magazine. In my preliminary photo I cut out my model and put the picture over a green background, I felt that this looked tacky when looking back on it and so for my final music magazine I chose to pick a background that I would like on my magazine, I also chose not to have the background cover the entire magazine and instead condensed the photo to a small box to make my masthead stand out more against a white background. My preliminary work was also completely self thought out and did not take inspiration from existing texts, this meant my final result didn't look authentic, however when I came to do my music magazine I drew inspiration from a number of existing magazines and emulated their styles to create a visually pleasing text. The shots used for the cover on both magazine were mid shots from a mid angle, I chose to stay with this shot type for my final product as I grew to learn from my magazine research that this was a generic style of shot used to showcase the star on the cover and allow the image to be noticeable from a far to potential buyers. My contents page for my preliminary work was very basic and contained little information, on my final magazine I had developed my skills and created a very informative and categorised contents page. The font choice also vastly improved from my preliminary work as I chose basic and common fonts that weren't attractive and would not increase audience appeal, in my final magazine I chose to pick more unique fonts as they are more interesting for audiences to view.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My artist represents social groups of both genders aged 15-25, I used the website 'UK Tribes' to find a specific social group which best fits the audience I aimed my artist at. After carefully reviewing each tribe I found that the category of 'Alternative tribes' best fit the general description of my audience and targeted social groups with 'Young alts' being a more specific description of my audience. The description for the tribe is as follows: The tribe who want out of the mainstream - an experimental tribe trying anything from grunge to hardcore. It goes on to describe them as 'wanting out of the mainstream', this is essentially what indie/alternative music is based on and it is very common for lyrics about not fitting in to mainstream society to feature in songs from indie/alternative artists.

My artists and a real artist - Alex Turner, lead vocalist in 'Arctic Monkeys' both have similarities and differences. They are similar in the physical sense that they are both of the same ethnicity and have similar style hair cuts that resemble a purposeful messy look that aids in convincing audiences of the 'laid back' and carefree personality that both the real artist and my own created artist are attributed with. Both artists are slim of figure and are portrayed in a way that gives them an air of mysteriousness that intrigues audiences.

In the article on my double page spread I made use of the article to create a particular background for my artist that shows him to be a typically rebellious character with no concern for how people think of him in the media, this is a common trait amongst indie/alternative artists with many of them frequently referencing parties, getting drunk and drug taking. I made reference to such things in the article by talking about my artist making headlines for 'drunken bar fights'.

Evaluation Question 1

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

During the research and planning stages of my magazine production I chose to work in the indie/alternative sub genres and therefore acknowledged the forms and conventions associated with this style of music. My finished magazine product not only uses and develops existing conventions of both indie music magazines and music magazines in general, but also challenges certain forms and conventions as I will demonstrate in this essay.

The first aspect of my magazine which I will discuss is the title of my magazine and how it is presented as a masthead on the cover, I chose to name my magazine 'VINYL', after the vinyl records that preceded CDs and cassettes as ways of purchasing a physical copy of an artists music. Whilst it is easily assumed that a title referencing items or ideas directly related to music is a generic convention of music magazines, it is actually quite uncommon amongst top music magazines for the name of the magazine alone to offer any indication as to the subject of the product. 'NME - New Musical Express' and 'Classic Rock' are the only two magazine titles with a direct reference to music in the list of the top 10 music magazines in the UK based on number of copies in circulation over a 6 month period as posted by 'The Guardian', and so it is clear the name itself does not follow conventions, however it does not challenge conventions either as similar magazine names do already exist in real texts such as 'Record Collector'. One way in which my title is conventional however is the length of the title, popular existing titles as they appear on the front of the magazine include: NME, Mojo, Kerrang, Uncut, XXL and Q, the majority of these titles are very short and one word long, this is something I took note of and mimicked when deciding on my own title, by using this convention I was able to create a sense of verisimilitude amongst my audience.

Various fonts were used throughout my magazine, each selected with a specific purpose in mind, generally my font use is very generic and uses conventions of existing magazines, especially those with a focus on indie/alternative music such as my own. All fonts used in the magazine were downloaded from a website called 'dafont.com', the font used for the artists name on the front of the magazine and also for the header of the double page spread was called 'bebas neue', it is a very slim but bold font similar to what is seen so often on the front of 'Q' magazine, it allowed me to fit a long header into a small space on the double page spread and also allow me to put a lot of text in a short space on the cover. Other fonts used include 'lumberjack' a typically common looking font resembling mainstream fonts such as 'arial' and 'verdana', this was used for the main bodies of texts including the article on the double page spread. Again this is very conventional as it is similar to what can be seen in magazines such as 'Q' and 'NME', the decision to use this convention came from the desire to have an easy to read font in order to make the article more favourable to the audience.

The layout of my magazine pages must also be considered when debating the conventional or non-conventional aspects of my product, I developed conventions surrounding the placement of my masthead as it is traditionally imagined that the masthead should be located in the top left of the cover as is seen with 'XXL', 'NME' and 'Spin', I however chose to develop this convention by placing my masthead at the top of the cover but in a central position, this is because of the simplistic style I chose to adopt for the cover page that means a more central masthead appears as more aesthetically pleasing.

Costumes my artist wore for the photo shoots were carefully considered, I chose to dress my indie music artist in non-branded clothing, across all shoots the artist wore jeans with a plain white or black t-shirt and a green or brown bomber jacket. This used conventions of how indie artists are styled when purposefully appearing in the media such as can be seen with how band members from 'The Courteeners' are so often pictured, I chose to use this convention as I wanted my artist to be as convincing as possible and I believe that this would not have been possible if I chose to challenge traditional conventions.

 

 

 

Teacher feedback on draft magazine

Main points to fix of teacher feedback:

- Change image on front cover

- Increase size of barcode

- Add another image on contents

- Align text on contents

- Make two columns on contents same width

- Change heading on DPS

- Align texts into columns

Audience feedback on draft magazine

These are screen grabs of the feedback I received on my draft magazine from other media students with experience in magazine creation as they all completed this coursework project last year, therefore responses from those who also have an interest in indie music will hold a high amount of relevance and credibility. 

Analysis of an institution

ICP Media/Time Inc.

ICP Media was founded in 1968 and is now known as Time inc.UK. This company is a digital publisher in the UK for consumer magazines (such as NME) and has published an array of magazines which has lead them to selling over 350mil copies a year. This company would be suitable for publishing my magazine because the target market to NME is similar to the target market for my magazine.

In April 2012, IPC Media won an award for Best Production Team of the Year at the Professional Publishers Association Production and Environment Awards 2012. Almost two in every three UK women and over 45% of UK men read a Time Inc. (UK) Ltd magazine.


Bauer Media Group

Bauer Media Group is a European-based media company, with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. The Bauer media group manages a portfolio of more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products and 50 radio and TV stations around the world. The portfolio includes print shops, postal, distribution and marketing services.
Bauer publishes Q and Kerrang magazine which again is a similar type of magazine to the one I will be creating (The Q music brand has expanded to Radio and Television, with Q Radio and Q TV being music entertainment that specialises in indie, rock and alternative).

Bauer's publications have done well globally for similar target markets to mine and they have gained a great reputation with the public. Music wise, magazines like Kerrang feature well-known bands like Panic! at the Disco of whom are similar to the band I will create for my magazine.

Language register

Based on research carried out, I have decided I want to include an interview in my magazine related to some musician's inspirations and stories regarding their band forming/ their rise to fame. I find articles like this interesting because it is a background creation for a character which gives readers and fans a better knowledge of the musician's life. Because of this, the style of writing will be quite personal with quotes from the musician displayed in large lettering besides the interview, similar to Noel Gallagher's interview with 'Q' magazine.

I want to adopt a very casual and laid back style of writing that epitomises what indie music is all about, I also feel that a too formal style may cause readers to lose interest as they will view the article as an forced interview and not the insight into the artists life which I hope to achieve. In the Noel Gallagher interview above, the interviewer asks specific questions that will evoke interesting responses such as when he enquires about an Oasis reunion despite it being well known fact that Liam is on bad terms with former band partner and brother Noel, purely to bring out the funny response that Liam gives.

Analysis of existing magazine titles

After reviewing existing magazine titles I have concluded that the most successful magazine titles are short, I will therefore also choose a short magazine title. I have decided on creating an indie music magazine which I will name 'Vinyl'. I have chosen this name as it has musical relevance and is short. The design of the mastheads for all the magazines are bold and tidy fonts, I will also think of this when designing my magazine.

Colour palette analysis

Colour palette analysis from davo28

Font analysis

1) Blacklisted - This is a font I have downloaded from dafont.com, I chose to include it as the water blurred effect that runs through the middle of the font is unique and may work well as a masthead.

2) Coconut Express 01 - This is another font downloaded from dafont.com, I liked it because of its neat styling with a quirky twist on some letters and numbers, I do not believe I will use it as a masthead due to it's thin appearance, however I think it will be good for an article due to it's interesting appearance.

3) Futura - This font I chose as it was similar to number 2, however it is without the quirky twists on certain letters, I feel as though this would be a good replacement for number 2 if it turns out that the quriks look out of place.

4) Lemon/Milk - Another downloaded font from dafont.com, this one I chose as it looked suitable for headers or the quote extract for the double page spread as it is a very bold and thick font which attracts the readers attention.

5) Bebas Neue - The final downloaded font from dafont.com, this I chose as it could have a diverse range of uses due to its thick lettering style, meaning it could be used for anything from mastheads to article text, also due to its slimmer style it uses less horizontal space which could be useful if I have limited space on my magazine.

6) Monaco - Similar to number 5, it is a slightly less bold version of the previous font, meaning if I use number 5 for an article heading or sub-heading then this would be suitable for the text underneath.

7) Phosphate - This font is slightly more unusual, it would only be used for the masthead, it takes a similar style to the 'NME' music magazine masthead which I particularly enjoy and may seek to mimic in my own project.

8 & 9) Rockwell, American Typewriter - These are two similar fonts with small variations that I chose because of their aesthetically appealing look which I think will work well in an article in the double page spread.

10) Copperplate Gothic Bold - This is a font that I have chosen as a potential masthead or sub-heading, however I am not sure if I will use it due to its wide nature which may prove to be too space consuming.

Examples of other texts

All of the texts above are a mixture of published content from current magazines. I have picked these magazines because they are all aesthetically appealing and have elements I am considering using for my magazine. I like the close up profile photos used on the covers because they give a clear indication of who the artist is and also all have complementary colour schemes which I want to include in my magazine. As for the double page spread, I like how despite being across two pages the photo joins them together, the large quote from the article attracts the readers attention and is something I will definitely seek to mimic when designing my own magazine.

Magazine Analysis

Media coursework analysis from davo28