Chelsea Morris

MediaMusic Magazine

Evaluation

1 – The Title of the Magazine + Font StyleFor my masthead, I chose to call it ‘rK’ since it is an abbreviation of the word ‘Rock’ which indicates the genre of the magazine as well as giving my magazine some individuality. I found in my research that music magazine title’s relate to music in some form, so my title follows those conventions.

I used the font ‘Arial Black’ for my masthead because it’s clear to read and is bold, which is also a common occurrence in music magazines. I gave the title a bright red background – like Q magazine – so that the rock colour scheme of black, red and white runs consistently through the magazine and so that the masthead catches the audience’s eye. Giving the masthead a logo type look makes it more memorable and is able to be used throughout the magazine.

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

2 - Mis-En-Scene of ImagesMy magazine follows the codes of conventions of typical magazines by way of the mis-en-scene of my images. I used a photography studio and a plain brick wall for the settings of the subjects photo shoot, since these are similar to ones used in other music magazines like Q and Kerrang! and also look much more professional.

The setting also reflects the music genre, and the subjects poses also aids in reflecting this. I tried to make my subject appear pensive in the double page image, but on the cover I wanted to give her an unruly adolescent look which I think I successfully achieved. Also, I followed the typical conventions of a magazine by making my subject look directly at the camera for the front cover’s image, which will attract my target audience to the magazine.

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3 - Costumes and PropsThe costumes and props used in my magazine ‘rK’ fit the conventions of usual music magazines. Since the genre I wanted was Rock, I looked at other music magazines of this genre (such as Kerrang!) and noted down what clothing bands wore, make-up etc.

I found that heavy eyeliner, dark clothing or bright skinny jeans were the most common in the magazines, so I instructed my subject to wear such items and do their eye make-up as dark as possible. We ended up using black skinny jeans, a leather jacket and a white t-shirt. As for props, I decided against them since I wanted my subject to be the main focal point.

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

4 – PeopleThe people/person used in my magazine is quite unconventional. In most magazines, the band members are usually in their twenties+ and usually have a more distinguished and unusual appearance, which doesn‘t apply in my magazine since the people/person is young and isn‘t distinguished and doesn’t have much of an enigmatic appearance.

However, due to my target audience being young people who are rock fans, I doubt this being slightly unconventional would be a problem. In fact, this might be more appealing to my audience since people/person is of the same age and they would be able to relate to them better and be more inspired by them.

5 - Written ContentThe written content in my magazine follows the conventions as it asks about the reason behind the band name, musical influences, information on the latest album and more. These topics are common in music magazines which are aimed at a similar target audience to mine, therefore keeping these conventions will attract my audience to the magazine.

However, there’s a slight unconventional as the interview with the band ‘eVoid’ didn’t include an introduction to the band but instead the title of the page was the band’s name. This is original and could possibly be more attractive to the audience so that they can get straight into the interview. Also, the contents page includes the conventional features and monthly features in usual magazines which are interesting to the audience.

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

6 - Music Genre and How Your Magazine Suggests ItThe genre of my music magazine is Rock. This is clear throughout the magazine due to the colour scheme, topics and even the title of the magazine. For example, the red and black colour scheme is consistent all the way through the magazine and the colours are used in Rock magazines like Kerrang! So this is a common convention in for the particular genre of music magazine.

In addition, the topics that are used on the contents page suggest the genre and also the masthead is an abbreviation of the genre of my magazine which is individual to most magazines, making it more appealing to the audience.

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What genre did you aim for when you started the band?Not really, we just wrote songs and put music with it. It’s only recently that we’ve tried to stick to a specific genre, now that we’re starting to find our feet and we’re starting to produce our own sound.

Are you planning any tours in the near future?I’m not allowed to confirm anything, but my guess is that we will be doing tours for publicity or the album so you will hear songs from that. We are planning something pretty big for us at the moment, so keep your eyes peeled for it.

Tell me more about your latest album, what’s your favourite song on this album?The sound is a lot different to the past work that we’ve produced and although there are some songs that are similar to our last album it’s an overall different sound. My personal favourite is ‘Playing the Wild C ard’ since it’s a mix between what we used to do and what we do now.

Who are your musical influences?Our music has changed as we’ve grown so this album may be a little different to the last. Our last album was compared to bands like Paramore, Now that we have moved on to more hardcore music we are being compared to people like You Me At Six and Bring Me The Horizon so for this album I’d say them.

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interviews

What made you decide to call the band eVoid?We had a few different names at first, We wanted something that was different and punchy with a “greb-y” twist to it and the name eVoid seemed to work really well so we just kind of went to that really.

7 - LayoutI kept the layout of the magazine conventional as audiences like familiarity with magazines and it also makes it look more professional. This is displayed on my front cover a it has the masthead in the usual place at the top of the page, the main image takes up the entirety of the page and the sell lines are on either side of the main image. As well as this, my double page is also conventional as it uses columns for the interview, a large title and page numbers in the bottom corners of the pages.

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

8 – Contents PageMy contents page also follows the typical codes and conventions of music magazines. One of them being the contents title is at the top the page which I found in my research is extremely common throughout music magazines. Q magazine gave me the idea of having my magazine title (which is also it’s logo) in the corner of each page, which gets the audience familiar with the magazine and it’s logo.

In most magazines, the contents page has a variety of images. However, I had a different approach with my own magazine, since I used one image alone so that it didn’t make the page look cluttered and shown the main feature of the magazine more clearly. The use of common conventions and uncommon conventions make the magazine more appealing and persuasive towards my target audience.

The UK ’s No.1 Rock Magazine!

www.RK .co.uk

T heir path to suc c ess

Issue 156£1.95

T heir path to suc c ess

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2013

RockerStyle

Facts aboutYou Me At Six

Facts aboutYou Me At Six

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contentsFeatures

Top 100 Rock SongsThe weeks top songs are revealed! What will be number 1?

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3 8 The Rocker StyleBeen wondering where your favourite artist got their jacket from? Find out here!

4 1 rK’s ReviewsrK give their opinions on recent concerts. albums and more!

Monthly

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5 3 Subscriptions

5 5 Crosswords

Band Fact FilerK gives you the facts about your favourite bands. This month; Imagine Dragons, Muse and You Me At Six.

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

I have chosen to compare images of Oli Sykes and Taylor Momsen with the image I have used on my front cover to explain how my magazine represents a particular social group.

To start, I used the ‘Drop Dead’ idea as it suits my magazines genre and it’s familiar with my magazines target audience. In addition to this, the facial expression is serious and reflects the attitudes of the target audience and also the music genre, and because my model is looking at the camera, this will draw the audiences attention and give them a sense of involvement with the magazine, therefore making it more appealing to them.

The obvious difference is the gender, as my model is a female. I aimed to make it so that the magazine is appealing to the female gender as well as the male, and because my model is of a similar age as that of my target audience, there is a likelihood that they would be more inclined to read the magazine as they would have something to relate to and would be inspired by someone their own age.

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

Another difference is the background and the lighting. Where Taylor’s photo has a dark patterned background, my photo is lighter and has increased contrast so that my model stands out more against the brick background which adds appeal.

Finally, the clothing I have used is popular with my chosen target audience and people that like rock music. In Taylor’s photo she wears tight black jeans and a leather jacket. This made me decide to choose black, tight clothing for my model since it fits with the genre and will appeal to my audience and persuade them to buy the magazine.

Overall, the photo I have used for my front cover reflects and represents a young social group and this is reflected throughout my magazine because the model I have used fits the style and attitude of rock.

I think that the media company IPC Media would be the best to distribute my magazine. It already distributes well known music magazines like ‘NME’ all over the UK, so they will already have experience and dependable consumes who may be interested my music magazine ‘rK’. In addition to this, my music magazine attracts a younger audience compared to other magazines which would obtain them a much wider market and get the magazine a distributer.

I considered using an independent distributor however that isn’t common within indie/rock magazines. I researched and found that these companies tend to focus and distribute magazines of the Hip-Hop genre like VIBE, therefore it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to choose an independent distributor since they wouldn’t have experience with my genre of magazine and being a small company, they may not have loyal consumers like IPC do.

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

http://www.ipcmedia.com/

I conducted a questionnaire which asked the age of the people that answered it, and found that the most popular age group was 11-20 that were interested in reading a music magazine. This meant that I could use features that they wanted and use the genre of music that they preferred so that I could attract this audience into buying my magazine.

I avoided asking for the gender as I wanted my magazine to appeal to both audiences since music is popular to both genders. I was more interested in the age as people of different ages are interested in different things, so finding a specific age group and finding things in common that they liked in a music magazine would help me to make my magazine more appealing to that target audience.

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

5. How did you attract/address your audience?The UK ’s No.1 Rock Magazine!

www.RK .co.uk

T heir path to suc c ess

Issue 156£1.95

T heir path to suc c ess

Download Festival

2013

RockerStyle

Facts aboutYou Me At Six

Facts aboutYou Me At Six

Download Festival

2013I also learnt that they preferred the rock genre, so I used bands from that genre such as You Me At Six on the cover so that they would be attracted to the magazine.

In the questionnaire, I learnt that the most popular features the audience would like were band interviews and latest rock music in the charts.

In addition to this, I found that 8/10 people that answered the questionnaire found that the music they listen to influences their fashion sense, so when I photographed my model, I made sure she wore clothing that would appeal to my target audience and included in the contents the two popular features to grab the audiences attention and persuade them to read the magazine.

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

Most of the creating process was done at college using college computers as they had the best software to use to construct my magazine. However I used my laptop out of college, but used Remote Access to get onto my college login so that I could use the software.

To transfer images from home to college I used my memory stick. This is good so that I have my work backed up and that it’s a simple way of transferring my work. To take the photos, I used my Nikon D3100 camera as it takes good quality photos.

To edit my images I used Pixlr Express, an online photo editing software that is simple to use but also makes your images look professional. I had never used this software before but I got to grips with it easily, and I also learnt how to airbrush, edit the contrast and make the images more vibrant.

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

Also, I learnt how to use Photoshop CS5.1 and using this software I learnt how to use the quick selection tool to cut out my subject so that it had no background. This was helpful for my contents and front cover, as I used this on those.

Finally, I created a blog on eBlogger. This allowed me to upload my work onto a blog so that it was easy to reach and clearly displayed.

Overall, throughout the project I have advanced quite a lot with technology, and now have a lot more experience in using different software. Also, discovering Remote Access not only helped to get my magazine finished, but also helped me to get other work done in the process.

To create my magazine, I used a programme called Serif DrawPlus X5 as it’s easy to use and worked really well to create my magazine. I had previous experience with Serif in ICT lessons, but during the process of creating my magazine I got better equipped with the software.

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

The UK ’s No.1 Rock Magazine!

www.RK .co.uk

T heir path to suc c ess

Issue 156£1.95

T heir path to suc c ess

Download Festival

2013

RockerStyle

Facts aboutYou Me At Six

Facts aboutYou Me At Six

Download Festival

2013

Since creating my school/college magazine I have really progressed with the use of photo editing software such as Photoshop. For example, I learnt how to use the quick selection tool on Photoshop so that I can cut things out, an example of this is on my front cover, as I cut out my model and placed her slightly in front of the masthead.

I also learnt how to use an online photo editor called Pixlr. I used this software to edit my photos before putting them on the magazine. On this software I learnt how to make my images sharper and more appealing and in addition to this I learnt how to airbrush etc. and to make it appear natural. I liked this software best as it was really easy to use and did good work.

Overall I believe I have progressed with the use of editing software as at the beginning I had very little knowledge of how to use both Photoshop and Pixlr and now I have created a professional looking magazine using these software.