EVALUATIONOf Foundation Portfolio

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MUSIC MAGAZINE USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MUSIC MAGAZINES?

My music magazine is based upon a music magazine which already follows the genre of RnB, ‘Vibe’, because it is clearly laid out to capture the audiences eye, using a range of font, font colour and font sizes, working within a ‘z’ shape form around the image.

Within RnB there is an idea of girl power as such, the idea that a woman does not need a man to be successful, so within my front cover I used this to represent my genre, which is what the magazine is suppose to do. The main cover line falls within the optical point, which will attract readers by the shocking line of ‘I thought I was dead’ it has the audience wanting to know why. Along the left third are the majority of the cover lines and the articles which would be more likely to catch the readers eye, this is done so when placed on a shelf in a shop can be seen by the purchasers easily. This will advertise and make the magazine stand out from the other magazines available, because of the cover lines and the range of colours and font.

CONT…The main image on the front cover overlaps the masthead of Rage. I did this because the image/artist on the front cover of the magazine is the selling point, only usual subscribers would look for the name, which they would recognize from the font used. Vibe also does similar here because they use the artist on the front to sell there magazine, so are able to cover their masthead.

The contents page is also similar to ‘vibe’ because of the linking to the front page, within ‘vibe’ the ‘V’ is used to show a link, so within my magazine the ‘R’ is used to show the link. My contents page has a variety of images relating to the articles featuring, but the images relating to the main article is dominant, which is also seen within contents pages of ‘Vibe’. Similar usage of color is used for the front cover and contents page, which is also shown in ‘vibe’ conforming to conventions of other magazines.

The double page spread is conventional to how most question and answer double page spreads look; questions are within different colors, quotes are in bigger fonts and stand out more from the rest of the text and the language used is conversational, which sticks to conventions of established magazines.

Barcodes follow the convention of music magazines, because they are commonly used, however is not seen on VIBE but from other magazines, it tended to be on the front page, with the date, issue number and price.

Similarly to VIBE I placed a top bar, following the conventions of a typical RnB music magazine.

I placed the image of my artist in the middle of the page, like VIBE has done with Eminem, which also overlaps the masthead, which gives the audience the idea that the image is the main selling point, also non subscription buyers would be attracted to the artist, more than the masthead

The colour of my masthead was chosen through a questionnaire and by looking at VIBE because this is a harsh, powerful colour which RnB represents, which follows conventions of RnB magazines.

With regards to the main image on my music magazine, the artist is not really what you would expect from a woman in the RnB genre, even though she does look like she is in control, with her dead straight hair and her bright lipstick, she is not sexualized, and does not really fit the male gaze. I did this because I wanted my magazine to represent power and to keep modesty.

I have placed my main cover line within the optical view, as VIBE does because it catches the readers eye immediately, following conventions of magazines.

Commonly puffs are seen at the bottom of the front cover, however I thought I would challenge this, so that it falls within the ‘z’ format and does not take any attention away from the main cover line.

I liked the idea from VIBE of having the first letter of the masthead on the contents page, because it shows continuality, that the front page and contents page links.

Links to social media sites and the website to subscribe is commonly seen within music magazines, however VIBE’s is a lot smaller.

Having the front cover on the contents page also shows continuality.

VIBE’s contents page only contains one image of the features of the magazine, however I thought I would challenge this to show images of different things within the magazine, to give it more variety.

Similarly to VIBE I have one column for the features of my magazine, however some magazines do split the articles off into different subheadings, I decided not to do this and focus more of images, to attract the readers eye.

I placed my artist, similarly to were Nicki Minaj is placed, because it immediately catches the audiences eye, so I followed conventions in this way.

The way I have highlighted quotes from the artist is also similar to that within the Nicki Minaj article, because it follows conventions, the audience immediately knows what this is and it stands out on the page.

I placed a box different from what the article discusses, which is not seen on the article below but is seen commonly within music magazines.

HOW DOES YOUR MUSIC MAGAZINE REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

The genre I have chosen to represent in my magazine is RnB, but the feminine aspect of the genre, this is of how women are viewed differently in today’s society, they are stronger, more powerful and more successful. Cover lines across my front cover are mainly based on female artists “the queen of RnB” and “free tickets to Mya’s sold out gig.” This gives the idea of female success which is highly represented within the RnB genre.

The image on the front cover, the artist, has bright, seductive like lips, which shows strength, as if she is in complete control, as well as having modesty, which continues throughout the magazine, on the contents page and double page spread, this fits into the social group because it is similar to the images of females within the RnB genre.

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MUSIC MAGAZINE AND WHY? Media institutions which may distribute my music magazine may be shops like HMV, because they stock a wide range of RnB albums. Also shops which specialise within the RnB genre may stock my magazine because it is a magazine which follows the conventions of their shop. It could also be stocked in places that support the idea of up and coming women, and the idea of girl power, because my magazine represents this throughout. My magazine could also be distributed through the internet because it is available to everyone and covers a wide range of genres, so mine would fit along side other magazines available.Being an independent distributer, by digitally distributing it would firstly cuts costs, which would be a good option for myself because of not having a lot of money and funding’s like other conglomerate companies do, so cutting costs would increase profit. Secondly distributing via the Internet widens the audience able to get hold of my magazine, and suits my target audience better, because the majority of young people of today all tend to have access to the Internet and social networks, like Facebook and Twitter. Present within my contents page is social media links and the website to subscribe, where I could have offers available, because through digitally distributing I am able to offer deals, because of the cheaper way of getting my magazine accessible to the nation, so even through having offers I would still be able to make a profit. Also if these offers are available the young people I wish to inspire and to read my magazine, who do not have a disposable income they are more likely to be able to purchase magazine because I am able to offer subscription at a reasonable price.

WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MUSIC MAGAZINE?

The audience for my magazine is RnB listeners and those who like to find out the gossip and details about artists within the genre they like, RnB, as well as being able to enter to win cool prizes. My magazine is mainly aimed at females, featuring iconic role models and people to aspire to be like, continuing the idea of feminine strength throughout generations, as well as finding out latest gossip and receiving advice.

HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE IN THE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS USED IN YOUR MUSIC MAGAZINE?

To attract/address my audience, I used bold, sharp colours and fonts, which are seen in existing magazines of this genre. This in itself creates an idea of strength, which is what I wish to get across.

Also I used images of a female artist, which enables the audience to relate to the artist, that this star could be any one of the women reading the magazine, that they hold strength and power; so it gives the idea of ‘this could be me’ which automatically builds up a relationship and attracts the audience to purchase and find out more.

Majority of featuring cover lines and articles within the featuring list within the contents page contain women or words associating to women, because it is a magazine representing women, which entices the audience to purchase/read the magazine because they are also able to relate through these.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING YOUR MUSIC MAGAZINE?The idea of using iMac computers, Photoshop and a professional camera, within a professionally set up setting, came as a new experience to myself. I started the process by using a green screen and a professional camera to take pictures of my model, which then enabled an easier process, to crop out the background, unlike within my college magazine images. I used magnet line and background eraser to crop out the background. Background eraser sometimes cut out some of my model, so through doing this it enabled me to learn the new technique of colour matching within Photoshop to draw back in the sections background eraser cut out. The magnetic tool enabled me to trace around the edges of my model to then cut and paste into my pages of the magazine, to then resize and refine, erasing any background that was not supposed to be there. I also learnt how to import photos onto the Mac computers and how to transfer photo’s to different areas within the Mac. Within Photoshop I was able to manipulate/ change the font, using a range of font sizes and types and experiment with the layout. I was also able to add effects to words I wished to stand out, like the masthead ‘Rage’ and the artists name ‘Chanel’ dimming and adding borders around the individual letters to make the words stand out from the others.Within the process I was able to discover a barcode making website, where I was able to make my own unique barcode, which I was able to import onto my front screen and then add on things like price and date, which is normally present on barcodes of magazines.

I also learnt how to save my magazine articles as JPEG which enables them to be transferred onto other documents, to be annotated and evaluated. It also enabled me to transfer the front cover onto the contents page.

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCTION?

From the preliminary task to the full production I have learnt to use a variety of font and font sizes. Within the college magazine I used a small range of font and sizes and stuck to a similar font, this made the front cover and contents page difficult to follow and read and look very dull. However, now within my full product I have used a wide variety of text sizes and font, as well as colour to draw in and attract the audience of my music magazine.

Within my music magazine I considered thirds more than I did in the college magazine. The masthead within the preliminary task seemed off balance to the rest of the magazine, it could of done with being bigger. So when I did the masthead of my music magazine I made sure that the masthead was proportionate to the rest of the front cover.

CONT.The images used when creating my preliminary task were taken off of a mobile phone, with the background of rooms present, which wasn’t the greatest of quality. So considering the quality of these images I took the images for my music magazine in front of a green screen considering the mise-en-scene, which gave my images a much better standard of quality.