mediablog: March 2010

Evaluation of music magazine

Brief:

For my coursework I had to produce a music magazine, front cover, contents page and double page spread. The magazine had to include a minimum of 4 images which I must take myself. I used a digital camera to take my images and to produce the magazine I used Adobe Photoshop.

I began planning for my music magazine in November 2009. Already I had a clear idea of how I wanted It too look and the genre and style I wanted the magazine to have. I wanted my magazine to appeal to teenage girls. To do this I would have to make the fonts feminine and use feminine colours such as pinks, purples and reds. I wanted my magazine to have a simplistic yet stylish style so I decided I would use a lot of black and white. I wanted my magazine to look professional. To do this I would have to use conventions such as: masthead, sell lines, cover lines, screamers and sky lines. I tried to interpret this into my work as much as possible.

First I took my images. I used a 17 year old girl for my cover star. I used a guitar and a chair as props and took the photos in the blue room at college. I purposefully used the girl as she had the look I needed for my front cover, she was slim, pretty and suited the genre completely. Once ready for the photos I put the lighting in the right places using a spot light. The photos started with long angled shots I then went on to mid length shots and then told my model to stand on a chair for the last shots. Because my model was standing on a chair I needed to get the angle right for my photos, I took some photos were I was stood on the floor making the photographs high angled and some were I was also standing on a chair. I took around 8 or 9 photos for my magazine.

Front cover:

Using Photoshop I started my front cover. I decided to call my magazine LOVEMUSIC, I used the font Franklin Gothic Heavy and put the word love in red. The reason for that was to show that the colour red is signified with love. I also used capital letters for the masthead to make it stand out. I selected the photo I wanted for my front page and using the magic wand tool on Photoshop deleted the bits I didn’t need. Once I had cut around the photo using the polygonal lasso tool I selected the inverse and deleted the background. I then put the picture on my front cover. Using a new layer I then wrote the title for my cover star. I used the colour purple and Lucida Handwriting font to write ‘Ellie Flower’, (my cover stars name.) Underneath that I wrote in black and used Ariel font to inform the reader what page the cover star would be on. I then put a barcode and a issue number on my front cover. After consulting a teacher about my work I decided to change the image on my front cover. I took around 7 more photographs this time choosing what my model was going to wear so it would suit with the genre more. I also didn’t use props as I just wanted shots of my model. Once id selected the new photo I edited it and put it on to my front cover. Because of my genre and idea that I wanted the magazine to look stylish I put the photo in black and white. By doing this I also think it made it look more professional. After that I filled up the spaces on my magazine by filling it with tellers. Like other music magazines I used a skyline on my front cover. By doing this I think it made it look more professional and like a lot more was going on, on the page. I also put a screamer on my front cover displaying the slogan I was using for my magazine. My front cover would only appeal to girls, this is achieving my aim. The product would represent my particular social group as it displays a girl on the front and the artists used in my tellers would appeal to teenage girls.

Contents page:

My contents page personally was the most difficult out of the coursework. I already had my image that I was using which was a medium shot of my model. I Also used a male model which I thought would fit in with the genre of the magazine. This shot was also a medium shot. I used the same colour scheme as I did on my front cover for the fonts. I displayed the mast head on my contents page in the left hand corner of the contents page using the font I had on my front cover. Also underneath the masthead I put my slogan. I started to plan were I wanted the text and decided to have it on the right hand side putting the image of my model on the left hand side underneath my masthead and slogan. I placed the image of my male model underneath the list of contents. I also placed the issue number on my contents page. After a rough draft of my contents page I changed many things. The first thing I changed was the font for my contents list. Going from Lucida Sans Unicode to Viner hand ICT. This made it look more professional and a lot more fun as it the other font didn’t suit my genre. I then added captions underneath my list on my contents. I did this to make it look more like a music magazine contents page and to fill up the space to make it look better. The captions matched the contents list but instead of red writing the font colour was black. I also added a new image onto my contents page. My choice of vocabulary for the contents page was suited to match my target audience and genre. The bands I listed was also picked purposefully. All the images on my contents page had the page number it was featured on and the sub heading describing it. I edited the main image on Photoshop, I smoothed around the edges and made it look a lot sharper. After three drafts my contents page was finished. I made sure that it appealed to my target audience and matched the genre I wanted. The colour scheming also matched the look of femininity that I wanted for my magazine.

Double Page Spread:

I wanted my double page spread to be simplistic yet detailed and informative. To write the script for my double page spread, I researched other music magazine double page spreads and when writing the text made sure I used correct media terminology. I decided I would use one image only but make it big and cover half of the page. On the other side of the double page I would display the interview. For the interview I made the text small. I used a title above it to describe what was written below and used my red, white and black colour scheme. I also used a quotation from the interview as a headline for my magazine. I included page numbers at the bottom ends of both corners of the double page spread to make it look more realistic and professional. I also edited the photo on Photoshop making the image look brighter. I had a few drafts of what I wanted my double page spread to look like, although I had finished the pages I wasn’t happy with the final result and realised I needed to change things. After playing around with different fonts and colours I finally got the look I needed to suit my genre and target audience. Then to make my page look better and more filled I used a skyline with the colour scheme black and white.

End of coursework:

I asked random people from my college what they thought of my magazine and I got positive feedback as well as negative. However the negative comments were mostly from the selection of males I asked although some females also wasn’t too keen on my work.

From producing this magazine I have learnt that a lot of hard work has to be put into structuring something like this and although you may be happy with the results some things will need changing over and over again to make sure you get the right results. Also when you plan your target audience and genre you have to make sure your work matches what you have planned. You have to stick to what you have written and make sure things are done correctly.

I feel as though the preliminary task helped my to understand what my coursework would be about and how much work would be involved. In classes we were clearly told our tasks and aims and the teachers both offered to help whenever they needed us. Because of the preliminary task it gave me an insight to what I need to do for my coursework and how much effort needs to be put in to make sure that you get the right grades. I feel as though I have worked much harder on my coursework then I did on the preliminary task, I think this is because a music magazine was something I was much more interested in then a college magazine.

I attracted my audience for my magazine by using bright colours and images that stood out. Also I used font styles and vocabulary to attract the teenage audience I wanted to have. When my magazine was finally finished. I was happy with how it looked although I thought that I could do better and make it look more professional. However a time limit meant I could not spend anymore time to change it. If I had to change anything about my magazine I would have started planning and taking the photographs a lot earlier then I did. I started my magazine quite late on into the course and if I could do it again I would of started earlier then I did. I feel that my magazine wouldn’t be distributed widely as the target audience and genre is limited. My magazine does not appeal to everyone so an institution such as the BBC would not distribute my work. Something more low key and something that specialises in feminine things however would maybe take my work.

Throughout my coursework I updated my blog. I included everything I have done in media and posted things such as research, information and images of my magazine. I also have posted up all my work done from the coursework which includes my drafts and images before they were finished.
www.paigedrewry.blogspot.com