Final Front Cover

This is the final image of my front cover, it shows all the typical features of a magazine, like main image, title, selling line, main text, and other images and text, and a barcode. I used a banner at the top and bottom of the page so to ensure the page looked neat and tidy, rather than it being a full image with no points that break it up.

Final documents

These are the final images of my cover, contents and double page spread for my music magazine, Revolution.

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

The title of my magazine is called "Revolution" to imply it is something new, and something big, enticing the audience into believing it is an important magazine. I used a font style called "Trashed" that looks quite grungy and unique, compared to other magazines that use simple, and plain fonts.

I haven't used any decorated backgrounds or props, I wanted to keep the main focus the models, and I thought for the genre of magazine, it would look much more appropriate for it to be kept minimalistic.

The clothing the models are wearing is quite casual, but quite indie/rock. They are stylish girls, meaning they are suitable to be models. Their hair colour makes them stand out more because they have red hair, and people like this colour due to celebrities like Rihanna, Hayley Williams and Cheryl Cole having the same colour. Their image fits in with the style of some people in current times, meaning the audience feel like they can associate with the magazine more.

I used a font style called "TRASHED" for my title of the magazine, I found this on the website dafont, and used this because it is quite quirky, and the destroyed style of it makes it seem more appropriate for the genre of magazine.

For the written content of my magazine, I used an interview with the band for my double page spread, and used numbers and text on the contents page. I decided an interview is more appropriate for the type of magazine, as me and most of my friends prefer reading interviews to articles written on the artist, by the magazine.

The genre of my magazine is rock/indie, I have created this by using a simple colour scheme, using lots of black and white, and using images to suggest a rock band. I have used people that are likely to be interested in this style of music and magazine as the people in my magazine to ensure its suitable for the audience. Most parts of my magazine are quite quirky, like the image banner on the contents page isn't typical in magazines, and the film strip on my double page make the magazine more quirky.

The layout of my magazine is quite simple, and similar to existing magazines like Kerrang and NME. The cover has mainly text towards the bottom of the page, meaning the middle of the page's focus is the main image of the band "The Red Feathers." I did this so that the main focus of the cover is the image, meaning that some people that don't usually buy the magazine might be attracted to it by the artists. The contents is split into three sections, the listed contents, the images and captions and the band index, this makes the page easier to look at, and more professional. The double page spread has been kept as one page with one large image and little text, the other page being kept as the start of the interview and some images. I used one of the pages without much text to ensure it didn't look too cluttered.

As mentioned before, the contents page is kept in three columns to make it easier to read, and the images used are all relevant to the cover and contents of the magazine, I used some images from gigs I had been to myself, and ones I had took of friends that look suitable for the genre of magazine. I added a band index to make it easier to find certain bands/artists in the magazine.

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

The first two images are both quite bold, and they both have artists that look similar to each other. The image of the NME cover is kept quite minimal and their dress style is also quite casual, but because of their hair styles they look more like an indie/rock artist. My image is similar to this as they are dressed casually, and their style makes them more suitable for the indie magazine. They are both stood side by side in each image, but my image features a female band rather than a male band. The girls on my cover are dressed, and styled differently to a typical music magazine, where the woman are often made to look quite sexual, and dress in a way that men would find more attractive. The images on the "biggest stars of 2010" section, are all like different sub-groups/fashion styles within the Indie group. The first image is a typical rock star pose, the second a more natural acoustic singer, the third a female dressed in a more sexually suggestive way, she is wearing make up, and has her hair styled, and her pose is looking seductively towards the camera. The final image looks quite geeky, which some people have started to dress like in the current trends.

The other two images are of male indie artists whilst singing. The image of Matt Cardle looks very natural, he is holding a guitar which makes him more musically talented meaning some people will be interested in his talent, this is like the image of Tom I have used myself, as he is singing and holding a guitar he looks very natural.

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

I researched magazine distributors in the UK, and found that the largest one is IPC media, who produce a large selection of magazines, this company produces NME. I also found the company; Bauer Media Group, they own many magazines and the whole of the "Q" and "Kerrang" franchise, including their TV channels, magazines and radio channels. Meaning, this distributor is more suitable for a magazine of a music genre, because of the popularity of their current brands.

Bauer Media Group;
-The Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations.
-Bauer Media reaches over nineteen million UK adults across multiple media channels.

Kerrang audience profile: Individually minded, independent of thought and musically experienced, an audience defined by attitude, passion and loyalty.

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

The target audience for my magazine is indie/rock. The people likely to buy this magazine will listen to bands like The Pretty Reckless and Green Day. It is a magazine that females are more likely to buy, because of the artists on the cover, although, males are likely to buy it also, their age being around 16-25, it is quite a young audience.

As an audience, they are likely to be interested in products from shops like Topshop and River Island, and music stores like HMV, play.com and Amazon. The audience will typically use internet and a lot of new technologies because of their age. I found out from the research on NME, that most people around this age own laptops, Ipods and music channels like MTV.

Also, the magazine isn't a specialist magazine, meaning people that aren't very familiar with the music styles and genre can read the magazine and understand it, it also has some features that are more for the specialist audience, meaning it is suitable for a larger range of people than a typical music magazine.

Project

Phoenix:

Project Phoenix is Bauer Media’s look at the social categories for music magazines. The categories are listed below:

Background Listeners (39% of the 16-45 population)
Background listeners are not as passionate about music as most.

The Headliners (20% of the 16-45 population)
Headliners like music, but are no more passionate about it than the average person of the same age.

Track Hunters (24% of the 16-45 population)
They like discovering new bands, but are probably not the first person to find out about new artists.

Pace-setters (17% of the 16-45 population)
Pacesetters see themselves as being interested in different things to the mainstream and as having a true passion for music.

My magazine is most likely aimed at a cross between pace-setters and track-hunters, because my audience are likely to be passionate about music, but some people more than others, so my magazine is open to a number of people within these two categories.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

The above video is what my target audience thought about the cover of my magazine.

I also uploaded my magazine to the website, Facebook and gained comments and feedback from the target audience.

I used the above information to gain feedback from my target audience, and after doing this I made some improvements based on what my target audience had said.

I mainly attracted my audience by using eye-catching images like those on the cover and double page spread, and using different font styles to make it seem quirky. I have also used competitions and money off vouchers so that the audience (who are likely to shop in clothing stores and go to gigs and concerts) feel more attracted to buy the magazine.

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

I have used mainly Photoshop Elements 7.0 and Internet Explorer during the whole project, to research and create a product. I have used programmes like Microsoft Word 2010, aswell as Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, to show the different aspects added to each part of my final product. And I used this website, Blogger, to track my progress and comment on the progression of my project. I learnt how to use Photoshop as I was making my project, and picked up tips from other students, because I had very little knowledge or experience until starting AS Media.
I used a Nikon DSLR camera to take my pictures in the studio, and I used a SanDisk pen drive to enable me to take my work home, and work on it on my Packard Bell laptop.

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

Looking at my preliminary task shows a strong difference between this and my final product. My preliminary task was created when I had little knowledge of photoshop, and how to edit images and change the layout on documents. The font of my preliminary stays mainly the same, making it look childish and unprofessional. Although the layouts are similar, the cover for my final product is more busy, making it more appropriate for the target audience and genre of magazine. The main image used on my main product is also more appropriate, because it has been edited and therefore, looks more professional. The colour scheme of my preliminary task makes it look more childish, whereas the colour scheme of my main product looks more professional because its kept more simple, and less bold and colourful.

Like the front cover, my contents page has developed as I have used more suitable colour schemes and images for my chosen target audience, and I have learnt how to use photoshop more precisely, meaning the overall layout and techniques used are more suitable for that of a magazine.

Progression of my double page spread

Progression of double page spread

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Progression of my contents page

Contents progression

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Cover

The first draft of my cover as posted below I have changed slightly, I made some of the text bigger, the main image bigger and I changed the curves on the main image to make it more suitable for the audience, and genre of magazine. The final version of my cover will be posted with the double page spread, and contents as the last post on my blog...

Font and Barcode...

These are the two fonts I used in my cover and contents and double page spread, and I used fonts like Impact, and Poor Richard, but the two below I gained from the website dafont.com.

The barcode for my cover was made in photoshop by myself...

MY COVER!

First draft of my front cover...

My cover...

Progression of my front cover

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Starting my cover.

After researching existing magazines and finding influences for my work, and collecting images I will be able to start putting everything together to create my cover. I collected several different images from gigs, and of my friends that could be suitable and put them in a document so I could look at this for inspiration. Some of the images are attatched below; And, I have images from large gigs, smaller gigs and the image at the bottom I like because her style looks very quirky, and she looks different compared to the other rock stars.

Photoshoot

These are the images I gained from my first photoshoot, and I have an image of the studio I took them in, I will use edited versions of these in my magazine to make them look more professional. I will make the images darker by changing the curves and levels in PhotoShop, I will also use auto colour correction because the images have turned out quite dark, and I will turn the saturation down to make them less bright, which could mmake them look like something from a pop magazine...

Images...

I looked on google for different image ideas for my cover, and double page spread, I found this image and want to recreate something similar, I like the way they are dressed, and I like that they look similar, it makes it look quite quirky.

I will use these two girls as my models for my cover and double page spread, maybe my contents. I like their style and they could possibly be in a music band. I will make them dress in quite dark clothing, but not too gothic, and quite casual with hair and make up similar to what it is on the picture to the right!

Decisions

After looking at several different genres and styles of music magazine, and completing my own research documents, I have decided that I am going to create a magazine based on the genre of Rock, and used the name "Revolution" with a selling line of; The weekly music revolution...
I will use NME and Kerrang to help influence my work and to help aid decisions on the layout and style of my work

Name Ideas

Before I create my magazine I tried to think of different names I could possible use, I came up with the following;
-Amplify
-Bass
-Generation
-Revolution
-Echo
-Headline

Out of all the names above I like "Revolution" and "Headline" best, so I asked a number of people in my class for their opinion and the most of them liked Revolution, and thought it sounded appropriate for a music magazine, and especially one of a rock genre. It applies to the genre because it makes the reader think it is of some importance, and with revolution typically meaning a change, it could symbolise a fresh different type of music magazine.