Punk, Rock and Punches.

Media Evaluation,

By Ellie Morris.

My music magazine follows many typical magazine conventions. For example, on my front cover image the subjects are making eye contact. I did this because eye draws the readers in, and almost all magazines use this convention. I dressed my subjects in clothes that are associated with the Punk/Punk Rock scene, which ties the subjects in nicely with the genre of my magazine. They are stood in quite a strong pose, which also ties in to my genre of music as the sort of music featured is strong, powerful loud music, so having the subjects in a pose that represents this was essential. I also had the music magazine title in a large, bold eye catching font at the top of the page; this is so when it’s on magazine stands the title is always visible. I decided to put some of my features in an oval shape to draw attention to them, and the things inside the ovals are ‘freebies’ and a competition, which also attracts people to magazines.

I found out from my questionnaire that people are interested in freebies, and would be more inclined to buy my magazine if it included these things. I priced my magazine at £2.50 and added this into the bottom right hand corner in a small font just above the bar code. Most magazines place their bar codes and prices here as it is clear and easy to see the price, and quick and easy for the cashier to scan. After reading my questionnaire I decided to price it at £2.50 as most people chose to buy magazines in this price rage- any higher and people are not willing to pay, any lower and people don’t expect the magazine to be that great (they expect poor quality pictures etc.)

I added the issue number and date of magazine release just under the title, as many magazines put this information on the front cover, and many of them have it where I placed it, or near the barcode. I had it at the top so it was easily visible, and because there wasn’t enough room near my barcode.

Almost all of the colours I used on my front cover were extracted from the image. I used the ‘eye drop’ tool on Photoshop to select a colour, then add this to the swatches. I then selected this colour and changed the colour of my font to it. For example, the burgundy red that is used for the footer and one of the ovals is the exact colour of the female’s hat. The three different shades of blue were extracted from the collar of her shirt, and the text that reads ‘ALL RUMORS REVEALED’ is coloured by extracting the colour form the grey jumper, then making it slightly lighter. I decided to have the colours extracted from the picture as lots of magazines do this, for example the Kerrang! Magazine I analysed prior to now did this using reds and blacks.

My magazine genre is punk, rock and punk rock. Throughout my magazine I have included certain things to draw people who are interested in this genre of music in. I dressed my subjects in punk rock clothing- band t-shirts, hats and tattoos are all included in the front cover image. These things are associated with the punk rock genre, so having them on the front cover is important as it will be the first thing the audience will see, and the image is an important part of drawing the reader in. I also used certain words/phrases that are often used in the punk rock community. I included things such as ‘make your room kick-ass’ and the ‘maddest and baddestbands.’ Both of these phrases are commonly used in the punk rock scene, so including them was essential to drawing in my intended audience. I also included articles that this age and genre of people would enjoy reading about. If I included articles about bird watching for example, this wouldn’t fit in with my genre of magazine or the age range it is aimed at.

Here is a similar T-Shirt to what my subject is wearing. Both contain anchors and writing. The blue shirt is a Punk Band (Lower Than Atlantis)’s Band T-Shirt.

Most of the people reading my magazine will be interested in attending gigs, and having free posters of band members, so articles like this were a good way to attract the right genre of people. My intended audience are teenagers and young adults who are interested in the Punk Rock genre of music. I have used language and images to tie in with both of these things, in order to attract as many people as possible.

From my research I have learned that putting things in ovals or boxes draws the readers eye towards it.

I have aimed it at teenagers and young adults as statistics show that the average teenager (14-19) listens to music on average 2 hours a day. This is higher than any other age range of people. This is important as it means they will have a strong interest in music, and want to know about bands and band news, and my magazine will keep them up to date with both these things.

I think they type of media institution that would distribute my product is an organisation similar to Bauer, who are the distributors of Kerrang! I think my magazine would appeal to this type of organisation, and therefor they would consider distributing my product. The contacts that they have would help my magazine to get out there, get seen and get bought.

I would prefer this type of institution to distribute my product as I think that they could get it seen by many people and know good places to advertise, (e.g. on radio stations that my genre of readers would listen to, for example Kerrang! Radio, as opposed to classic FM), they would have lots of constructive criticism and know what they are talking about, and overall be more confident with distributing my magazine, where as I personally think a smaller company may be less confident, and not be able to distribute my product as well.

http://www.classicfm.com/radio/

http://www.kerrangradio.co.uk/on-air/listen-again/

Above are two links to listen to Kerrang! Radio and Classic FM online. By clicking on them, and then pressing play you will easily be able to see the sheer contrast of music genre, and you will be able to see why advertising or talking about my magazine on a radio station like Kerrang!, instead of a radio station like Classic FM.

Throughout making my product I have experimented with different technologies and this has developed my understanding of them. At the beginning I was not confident with Photoshop and uploading photographs to the computer, and I struggled with both of these tasks. As the product progressed I became more confident with Photoshop and I became more experimental with it.

I started off with a simple lay out, and

little on the front cover.

After experimenting and trying out new

things with colours and shading

my front cover started to come together well.

By the end of the creation of my products I was able to use Photoshop confidently and successfully, and I have a detailed knowledge of tricks and short cuts of editing pictures. These skills have helped with me in my other subjects, for example I now regularly use Photoshop in my Photography lessons to create interesting images.

My first try to my final product.

My journey from my preliminary task to the creation of my Music Magazine has been eventful and eye opening. I now feel like I have a good understanding of technology and programs, as well as how magazines are produced and edited, how important content is, how to draw specific audiences in, and how positioning and language can completely change your style of Magazine

I feel that the creating of the first task has helped my second task as I can see how far I have advanced- I started with standard images, simple editing and non-catchy titles; slogans or contents. Now, I have made a good, sellable media product, that contains carefully planned and edited images with things like clothes, lighting and eye contact taken into account, a title that attracts a certain genre of readers, a contents, front cover and double page spread that looks professional and realistic, and a carefully written interview that contains hints of humour, news and stories, all things that my audience would like to read in a magazine interview. My questionnaire and general research helped me with these things, I have learnt a lot from seeing other people’s opinions and what professionals actually produce.

Without this research my work would look unprofessional, tacky and not worthy of being a real media magazine.

Overall I am very pleased with my finished products, and the skills and information I have learnt is very useful. I have enjoyed this project very much, and I am going to look into producing more similar products in the future.