Music Magazine Evaluation

Ellie Hampshaw

Question1: In what ways does your product use, develop or

challenge form conventions of real media product?

THE COVER

I based the cover for my music magazine on NME covers because I liked the unique style of there covers. But when it actual came to designing the cover on my 2nd attempt I got my inspiration from one cover in particular……

The conventions from this magazine are developed by placing my masthead in the top left hand corner, having a mid shot of the artist as the cover photo, the black and white cover scheme and the checkered boarder .

Using magazines conventions the artist shown on the cover addresses the audience by looking directly into the the camera, in both magazines.

THECONTENTS

Before deciding to base my contents page on NME’s I had tried many different styles, but

none of them looked I like a real music magazine until I decided to based it on an NME contents

page…..

The conventions are developed by have the contents title at the top of the page with the date, have mid shots of bands with a page numbers.

The conventions of the layout of the list of content's are listed more clearly than the NME one, Thus challenging its conventions

THE DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

I based my double page spread design on one from NME, because I felt it fitted in well with the black and white checker theme that my magazine had. This is what they look like…….

The conventions from this magazine are again developed by having a mid shot of the artist on the right hand page of the magazine and are both addressing the audience.

The pull quote is at the top of the left hand page and the interview is at the bottom of the page.

Question2: How does your media product represent particular social groups ?

Arms crossed shows attitude which is a sign of rebellion, so my audience listens to the rock genres

People who go to music festivals are usually part of the indie rockers social group.

The bands that are listed on my front cover are all alternative rock bands which represents there fans.

The buttons done up Fred Perry polo tops is associated with indie/rockers style social group.

The stars are usually used to represent a indie/rocker social group

Hoodies are a popular clothing item in the indie/rocker social group.

The messy curly hair and laughing pose is a common pose of the indie/rocker social group.

Question3: What kind of media might distribute your

media product and why?

IPC Media could be interested in my product because they already have an existing magazine available (NME) which I based my magazine on. They also provide UNCUT, another alternative rock magazine that is based for older readers but because NME is already based at younger readers, as is my magazine, they may not be as interested because they are so alike.

IPC MEDIA

Bauer Media also could be interested in my music magazine because they distribute Q magazine, which focuses on rock but contains main stream music, but it’s audience is for older readers (25+). They also distribute KERRANG, a heavy rock magazine based at young people (16+). This means that there is a gap for magazine because my magazine is based on indie/alternative rock music and it’s audience is 16+ because they haven’t currently got a magazine like mine, this means that they might be more interested than IPC Media would.

BAUER MEDIA

Question4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

We love alternative/indie rock .

We go to college and have part time jobs.

We are 16+.

We love going to gigs to see our favourite bands.

We want to know what our favourite bands have been up to.

We want to know who’s bringing out a new single.

We listen to music all the time.

We love music festivals .

Question5: How did you attract/address your audience?

• The “artist” is looking directly into the camera to give the impression that he is looking at the reader.

• I used a pull quote rather than traditional cover lines to attract the target audience.

• I used a list of current indie bands again to attract the audience with bands that they might like.

• The contrast between black and white captures the audiences eyes and gives the magazine a retro look, which is suitable for my target audience.

• The left hand photo again addresses the audience by having the feel that they’re looking at them.

• The stars look as if they are jumping out of the page, which is entertaining the audiences eyes.

• Using catchy slogans for the stories makes the reader want to read more about it.

• I also carried on with the black on white theme to catch the readers eye.

• I used the bold black and white theme in the double paged spread to entertain the readers eye.

• Using the photo I used previously, it gives the reader the idea that the “artist” is looking at them.

• The idea of using white writing in black boxes makes the words look bolder and therefore more attractive.

Question6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I used InDesign to create my media product. This program developed my IT skills as I have never used it before, especially because it was on a Macintosh, which was hard to use as I am a PC user myself. I learnt the key skills I needed to create my magazine, for example: I am now able to place items in to InDesign and get them to fill a frame.

Photoshop was a program I used to edit my primary photos and to experiment with my mast head. I found this program quite easy to get to terms with as I have used similar programs in the past. Again I developed basic Photoshop skills and I am now able to cut out certain parts of my photos and either save it as a single file or paste it on to a different background to make a new photo.

Blogger is an internet web page which allows you to create your own blog and share it with others. This program was extremely easy to use and I learnt most of the basic skills quickly.

Being a PC user myself, I found it very difficult to get used to the layout of the Apple Mac, and found it hard to figure out where all of the functions were. But now I have used it a lot by making this product, I understand it a lot better and can work most of the basic functions on it.

Question7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Throughout this project, I have gained a lot of new skills through the use of different software. Once I had learnt the basic skills I was able to experiment a lot more, improving the design of my second product, compared to the first (shown in pictures). Also, my knowledge of the magazine market has improved over the course, so I am able to use a variety of my newly learned skills to improve my work. For example, in my first product I only used cover lines and kept the background as the cover photo, where as, in my second product, I used a pull quote, banners, cover lines and a trimmed image as my cover photo.