Final pages.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

When looking at my preminary task, it is clear that my design skills have improved. In the preliminary task, I didn't take much time when planning the layout. As you can see my front cover is too empty, and also I haven't really thought about the positioning of the centre image and my masthead. My music magazine, looks more professional and there is enough content on the front cover, whilst keeping it simplistic looking. Also the image I used is also more appropriate as it fits in with my magazine better, and also my target audience, where as my school magazine wouldn't interest the audience that much.

Also the contents page for the school magazine looks too empty and is very unconventional; there aren't enough images, or enough text and also the fonts don't look suitable for this type of magazine. I feel like I corrected these errors when making my music magazines contents page, whilst still not using that many images I managed to keep the contents page looking more conventional. I used conventional sectioning with small blocks of text, keeping the context short. The fonts used suit the style of magazine and the layout and images are more appealing. I feel there is an even balance between the amount of written content and the images I have used.

Overall, I believe I have been able to develop my skills in both Photoshop and InDesign, also I have recognised the traditional conventions within magazines and been able to either fulfill or subvert these in a professional looking magazine, suiting well to my audience.

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

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

I had never used a Apple Mac before I started with the project of making a music magazine, I luckily did get used to using them rather quickly. I found they were easy and helpful when handliing the documents I needed for my work. Also, the drag tool was very useful when using various elements on the Macs. The two main programmes I used on the Macs in order to create my magazine were Adobe Photoshop and InDesign.

Photoshop: Again, before this coursework I hadn't used Photoshop. I got to know the basics whilst editing the photographs for my preliminary task, however I learnt more whilst editing the images for my music magazine. I learnt how to use the dodge and burn tool, in order to make certain areas of the background stand out more, the healing tool, in order to make it look like the model was surrounded by bright grass. Also I used the spot healing tool on my models faces, and i also used the brightness and curves effects to create the mood and atmosphere I wanted all my images to have.

InDesign: Like photoshop, I had no experience in using InDesign before the preliminary task. It took longer to learn how to use the pgramme than I found it took to learn how to use Photoshop. Once I understood that many of the features, such as the layers, were similar to those in Photoshop I started to pick up how it worked quicker. This programme was extremely useful when I was trying out different layouts as all the boxes were easy to move and alter the shapes without all the text and images changing perportion like in Photoshop. Also it comes with a larger range of fonts than Photoshop allowing me to create al sorts of different moods until I found the one that I believed worked best with my magazine.

At the start of September I wasn't confident in using those programmes or Apple Macs, I now however do feel very confident in using them, and even being able to help others than do not.

However I did also use a number of websites throughout the process. The following list below document the websites I used.

1. Google

Research into my genre, magazines, images and basic informaton.

2. Blogger

To publish all my information and work.

3. Photobucket

Upload photos taken, to transfer onto blog.

4.Flickr

To annotate work for my blog.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

5.How did you attract/address your audience?

I have annotated the front cover of my magazine and also the front cover of 'Mixmag' magazine.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49074136@N02/

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

4.Who would be the audience for your media product?

Since my magazine is relatively niche magazine, my target audience is quite a small collective group. This group are those aged from 17 - 25 and I would also say that would also be a larger percent to be female rather than male.

The stereotypical female reader, would be a 20 year old. Her taste in music is quite vast, yet favours artists such as Cascada and Basshunter, who are both in the pop charts and also focus on dance music, rather than just listen to the drum and bass dance music. She would be someone who enjoys shopping especially in places such as Topshop, Miss Selfridge and also River Island, where fashionable clubbing clothing is now sold. She would be interested in the magazine because it focuses on main stream artists rather than the really niche artists. Also she would be able to relate to the duo in the double page spread since they are of similar age groups.

Also the layout of the magazine isn't complicated, therefore making it easy to read. Also the colour schemes I have used are representive of the genre and theme of my magazine.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your music magazine and why?

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your music magazine and why?

'Mixmag' is a similar magazine to mine. It isn't one of the biggest known music magazines but also isn't quite a niche magazine. It gets a large percentage of its sales from subscription, below is a link to the subscription section on the MixMag website. http://www.mixmag.net/content/subscribe-mixmag
Since mine is also quite specialised and the demographics for 'Mixmag' is the same as my target audience, I would focus on a subscription deal to distrobute my magazine as it wouldn't be able to compete so well up against other monthly magazines like 'Q'. However, since the interests are very similar, I had to create a difference between the two, so where Mixmag focuses in on the clubbing and fashion I chose to have a different theme to focus in on every month; including a festival issue.

I would advertise my magazine in highstreet shops such as 'River Island'http://xml.riverisland.com/flash/content.php and 'Topshop', I would choose these shops because they are the shops in which my target audience shop the most.

Also since my magazine focuses on festivals alot, I would also advertise and sell them at the major dance festivals throughout the summer, and offer lower subscription fees if you subscribe from the festivals. These festivals include those below.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Above is an photograph I have taken (right) as part of my inital photo shoot. The photo on the left is of a previous issue of Mixmag, the main competitor of my magazine Euphemia.

The main image on the the cover of Mixmag is the artist Little Boots, which is also indicated by the anchorage text. The image I have taken isn't featured in my magazine, however i think it is an effective image to use to show how my magazine represents certain social groups. Even though the facial expression and positioning aren't that similar between the two shots. My model Dominique is standing in a field with a smile on her face, similarly Little Boots on the front cover of Mixmag is laying on the field with a slight smile on her face.

The overall gestures and background gives the impression I want to portray without giving the genre, which i portray with who the model is rather than the location and positioning. In both of these images, the costumes used are visible, mine being more visable that the one in Mixmag. We can see that they are both similarly dressed, both are in patterned little dresses that you would expect to see at the festival scene. The models are both staring into the camera giving a direct mode of adress which attracts potential readers attention as they stare right at the reader.

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

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

1. Title of my magazine.

When I was coming up with the name of my magazine I knew it was important to keep in mind how my title would represent the genre of music I was focusing on and also how I wanted to portray this. I didn't want to represent dance music just for those who like clubbing but also to show there was a different side to dance music. I choose to call my magazine something that sounds likes associates with the dance suggesting the genre of the magazine.

2. Mise-en-scene of images.

Since my magazine issue is focused on being a festival issue, I felt it was important that a number of my images reflect this theme. If you look at number '2' on my image, you can see that this picture does reflect the festival theme as she is in a field and also dressed as you would expect to see at a festival. I feel the simplicity of the images taken reflect the theme rather than the genre, which is what I was hoping to achieve.

3. Costumes and props.

In image '3' the models are wearing wellies and thick clothing and one is posed with a tent. I decided to only use few props as it reinforces the theme of festival living.

4. People.

The models used represent the artists to the dance music genre which are breaking through. I chose to use new artists as this could intrigue fans of this genre to want to know who the new artists are.

5. Title font and style.

The masthead uses a font that connotates a sense of freedom, which is a connotation of the dance music genre. Also, I feel the colour scheme works well because the green colours relate to the issue theme.

6. Written Content.

The content in my magazine included many sterotypical conventions of a music magazine; including interviews with musicians, a collection of reviews and information of concerts. I have however altered the artists and information to focus around the dance genre.

7. Music genre and how your magazine suggests it.

I have included effective uses on both my front cover and on my contents page; the artists represented on the front cover and also the musicians mentioned on the contents page that would appeal to the target audience as the easily recognisable. The features in image '7' shows the content of the magazine is focused on the dance music genre; there are interviews based around the main stars within dance music.

8. Layout.

The convential layout for a magazine cover is that the main pieces of information are placed in the left-hand side vertical third. I however have chosen not to do this as I thought just placing the information where I feel it is necessary for it to go works better with the genre as the dance genre isn't too structured. For the double page spread within a music magazine conventionally the left page is taken up by a photograph, however I chose to not use this layout as I thought the my double page spread would be more interesting if I used one of the pages to have a small collage of images and then just use the other page for the story.

9. Contents page.

My contents page doesn't conform to any specific conventions of music magazines; it doesn't include as many pictures as magazines such as Kerrang! do. However it does follow some conventions that were noted in NME magazine such as different sections within the contents page. Also these conventions have been tailored to suit the genre I am focusing on.

My final pages!

Front cover

The final stage was swapping the plans for the actual stories and getting the right placements and the colours I wanted to use.


The next stage I worked on, was knowing where to put which stories so I created a plan so I could see if the stories worked where I wanted them to be placed.

I found the image I wanted to use, and placed my masthead onto it.

Double page spread.

When creating my double page spread I tried three different layouts to see which one would work best with my article and with my genre of music.

stages of my contents page.

Once I had finished this contents page, i asked my target audience to look at the page and to give me feedback. so the image below is my revised contents page.

Images.

Festival Fashion Slide Show.

I decided to do a shoot to get a variation of photographs to include in the Festival Fashion story, as I know I want to have a direct link to the story on my contents page.

First designs for pages.

These are some rough designs for how my magazine will be set out.

Mastheads.

Once the title of my magazine was decided I created a number of different mastheads. I used a variation of fonts, colours and images. Ranging from simplistic designed to quite busy designs.

The one that got the most votes and that I am using for my masthead is the bottom one, I am quite glad to be using this one because it is simple and therefore making it easier to be remembered and regonised.

Name of Magazine.

I asked 20 people aged 16 - 20, my target audience, which name did they like best for my magazine. I explained to them the genre and also what I planned to feature inside.
Just Dance. 5 Euphemia. 9
SoundsMag. 3
Dance. 3

Analysis of Magazines

I chose different genres of music when annotating different areas of magazines as I realise that different genres will have different conventions.

Basic Demographic

I plan to create my magazine in the genre of dance music. There are quite a few magazines that focus on dance music. However I thought in order for mine to stand out its sub-focus would be with fashion whereas other dance magazines focus on clubbing with it.

Since my magazine is going to alter from the stereotypical dance magazine I am going to try to make it stand out more, altering other conventions within dance magazines.

articles

Once I knew that I was going to do a festival issue I started to think of the different story articles I would want to include;

these ranged from articles from organizers to the fashion to a new band arriving from the festivals.

Topics within magazine

Once I knew that I was going to do a festival issue I started to think about what the stories in my magazine would be.

I came up with a long list of ideas; some of these include:

New group finding fame through festivals

Festival highlights - from both performers and readers

The magazines top performances - 10 ten from all festivals & top 3 from each festival

A festival from the organizers point of view.

Fashion from this years festivals

Bands to look out for from the new music tents

Bands to look for next year in the new music tents

Surprises from this years festivals

Festival first experiences

Festival tips for the future

I took these ideas and turned them into articles and stories to go on my contents page; the story I decided to use as my main article was about a new group being found and becoming famous through playing the big festivals and working their way through the stages and finally onto the main stage; the reason I chose this idea was because I felt it would be the most interesting to both write and to read, also I felt this one would be the one my readers would be most able to relate towards.

I then also took a set of photographs to go on my contents page to help represent my story-line of festival fashion - for this I asked my sister to model for me and I took some photographs of her in different outfits and doing different poses; I made sure I had varied outfits so I could then look through them to work out which ones I feel would work the best. Below is a link to a slideshow with those photographs on it.

http://s739.photobucket.com/albums/xx35/fishermedia/?action=view&current=0de528ae.pbw

Magazine Starter

Once I found out we were starting to do our Music Magazine, I still was unsure on what type of genre to do so I thought I would research a number of various magazines within various music genres. I did research on Mix Mag, NME, Vibe, The Source, Rolling Stone & RWD. I choose these magazines because they varied in genres therefore they varied in demographics. What I also did was to analysis magazine covers within different music genres aswell, so that once I then did decided what genre I would instantly have some evidence of what music magazines look like.

After researching these different magazines, I noticed that there aren't many dance/club music magazines; so I decieded I would do one of these.

After this I brainstormed different ideas for themes for my magazine; I came up with a few different ideas, these included New decade-New artists; Festival issue; Come back issue.

I then decieded that I would do a Festival Issue; this was through speaking to many people from my target audience, 18-25 year olds who like to go out clubbing, and they felt like the one they would be most likely to buy would be the one relating to festivals.

School Magazine.

As a preliminary task, I created a front cover and contents page for a school magazine.

What I did was plan out a few ideas for what could be on the front cover as a main story and then worked around that idea.
I choose to have a Head boy & girl as I thought if the magazine was actually being created that the story would be relatable to the students rather than the teachers or parents.

If I were to re-do this project the main differences I would make would be to have a larger range of pictures to be able to use as I left myself quite limited and also I would put more pictures and information onto the contents page as mine is quite dull.

Introduction

I have created this blog to keep track of my AS level Media Print based coursework.
This means it will include my practice magazine and also my final music magazine.
Throughout this blog there will be various different pieces of work added into it and in different styles.
Throughout this work I would appreciate comments on the work; some pieces I will ask for specific feedback on a certain area but I would appreciate feedback throughout so my work is as good as I can possibly get it to be.