Evaluation for Music Magazine
In Media studies at AS level, I was asked to create a music magazine which consisted of a front cover, a contents page and a double page spread feature article. I have found that this task for me was a challenge and also quite exciting in Photoshop and Blogger. The experience has also made me learn that deadlines are very important to keep to.
My music magazine product uses conventions of real music magazines in many ways. In the contents page I have a low angle close up shot of the model playing the MC artist, Kanibal. I have placed the image onto the side of the contents page so that it is noticeable but is not the main source of attention. I have placed the writing of the contents page beside the image going all the way down to the bottom of the page, which makes the writing stand out more than the image but also does not leave the image of the artist unnoticeable. This is how I have used forms and conventions of real music magazines. Also on some very well known music magazines, such as “VIBE” magazine, they have the initials of the magazine name on the contents page in the background. These initials are very clear and are placed usually at the top of the magazine contents page. I took the initials of my music magazine, G-UK, and increased the size of the initials. I then placed them in the background behind the contents page writing and faded it slightly so the writing would be visible, but not more than the actual content of the contents page.
My music magazine develops forms and conventions of real music magazines by using bright, funky and summery colours on my front cover. On regular music magazines I noticed that none of them really used quite bright colours. Instead they were plain grey or white and perhaps black. Occasionally I also noticed that the background of some music magazines are very busy so in order to develop these conventions, I tweaked the colours a bit to make the front cover seem a bit funky. Also when I was doing my market research, I found out that my target market group wanted to see my magazine be summer themed and quite funky, so I delivered.
My music magazine challenges forms and conventions of real music magazines by using different types of poses in my images. For example in my contents page, I used a really bold image on the side of the contents page which is very audacious but also is subtle enough for the text to be the central attention of the contents page. The image used is not a traditional kind of image but does put a thought like that in the reader’s mind. As shown in my blog, the image is of the artist Kanibal having his back to the audience and turning his head around to face the audience with his chain hanging off from his mouth. The image is different from what readers get in other music magazines and I had thought when I was having the photos taken, that I wanted to challenge the conventions of music magazines through photos, which from one of them I have successfully done.
My music magazine represents particular social groups in various ways. The one specific social group that my music magazine represents are cool teenagers, such as ones who wear baggy clothing. The several ways in which this social group is represented is shown clearly in my double page spread, front cover and also my contents page. On the double page spread it shows the grime artist sitting down in a relaxed position, leaning against a wall, wearing baggy jeans, a baggy jumper, a long chain and fashionable gloves. His head is turned away from the camera to the side as if to imply that he is ‘cool’ and popular from his body language. I decided not to aim my music magazine towards other social groups because I specifically only wanted cool teenagers who are familiar with the genre grime to be interested in reading this magazine. If more cool teenagers read Grime UK then the magazine will portray a good look and will send a message that “if you are a teenager who is cool, you need to read this magazine in order to stay cool.”
The sort of media institution that would distribute my media product would be magazine stores, book stores and music stores. Generally the entertainment sector would be selling these magazines largely in magazine stores. The reason why this type of media institution would be selling a music magazine is because it is a magazine which fits perfectly in a magazine store and it is to do with music which is why some music stores may sell it as well. My music magazine would promote artists music to do with the genre that ‘Grime UK’ deals with, therefore it seems appropriate to have a music magazine in music stores.
For my music magazine the target audience are teenagers aged 14-19 who are typically ‘cool’ and may talk a bit of street slang. They specifically listen to grime music and perhaps very little r&b and hip-hop. This was my intended market from the beginning of the project and is my target market group because it is the type of social group that I am typically involved in, therefore I would know to a large extent what this particular market may want from a music magazine. I did not include any features or steer away from the young grime market because if I had, then someone who does not fit the description I wrote above may pick up the magazine which would make the magazine seem as if it was not as cool as those teenagers.
I addressed my audience by creating surveys on http://www.surveymonkey.com/ which is a website where any individual can create surveys to get answers to specific questions or for market research of any sort. I created a survey on this website as part of my market research and sent the link to my survey to every single contact on my contact list on hotmail. For me this was a very successful way of passing round questionnaires as it was much more convenient and more simplified in the sense that a template was already made. Additionally, the individuals that were taking part in the questionnaires were anonymous, which makes it more likely for the person to put down an honest answer and provide authentic results. I created a questionnaire to find out what my target market wanted from a music magazine, so I could include the things that my target market group wanted.
I attracted my audience in many ways. From the questionnaire I created, the results told me that my target market group wanted funky and exciting colours as a theme. Some participants replied exact colours as extra comments. I took these replies on board and chose a funky summery sky blue for the main background colour of my contents page and an orange-peach colour for the main background colour of my front cover. I created a design which consisted of three main colours, blue, peach and purple which would be the funky theme my audience wanted. I added some colour in a striking effect behind the ‘Grime UK’ title on my front cover to add originality.
Moreover, I attracted my audience by placing an artist in recognisable clothing and body actions which would be familiar to my specific audience. Due to the mise-en-scene in the image, some of which include the dangling chain, the hat and the gloves, the magazine automatically becomes attractive to my target market group because it is someone who is very similar to them. The audience think that from what the artist wears, his or her body position and the body/finger actions they create.
I have learnt a few things which I did not previously know about from the process of constructing this product. I have learnt about and largely increased my knowledge of Adobe Photoshop which I had never used before. The patch tool was a tool that ‘fixed’ photographs and generally replicated the parts of the photo that you wanted to replicate. This came in handy when I needed to replicate parts of the blue t-shirt to hide away the shadowing of the chain. Also, I learnt about blogger where I blogged my progression using stills. Blogger also allows the user to embed videos and insert sound clips as well. Although I did not upload a video or insert any sound clips, I did learn how to insert videos and sound clips.
From my preliminary task till now, I think that I have significantly improved my photo editing skills and designing skills. I have learnt many new things from when I was doing my preliminary task. I have learnt how to efficiently use a layer mask to erase parts of an image which I do not want to use. Learning this skill was very useful for me as I used a layer mask on two main images that I used. Below I have shown and explained how I used the layer mask to delete the parts of the image which would not be useful to me.
In Media studies at AS level, I was asked to create a music magazine which consisted of a front cover, a contents page and a double page spread feature article. I have found that this task for me was a challenge and also quite exciting in Photoshop and Blogger. The experience has also made me learn that deadlines are very important to keep to.
My music magazine product uses conventions of real music magazines in many ways. In the contents page I have a low angle close up shot of the model playing the MC artist, Kanibal. I have placed the image onto the side of the contents page so that it is noticeable but is not the main source of attention. I have placed the writing of the contents page beside the image going all the way down to the bottom of the page, which makes the writing stand out more than the image but also does not leave the image of the artist unnoticeable. This is how I have used forms and conventions of real music magazines. Also on some very well known music magazines, such as “VIBE” magazine, they have the initials of the magazine name on the contents page in the background. These initials are very clear and are placed usually at the top of the magazine contents page. I took the initials of my music magazine, G-UK, and increased the size of the initials. I then placed them in the background behind the contents page writing and faded it slightly so the writing would be visible, but not more than the actual content of the contents page.
My music magazine develops forms and conventions of real music magazines by using bright, funky and summery colours on my front cover. On regular music magazines I noticed that none of them really used quite bright colours. Instead they were plain grey or white and perhaps black. Occasionally I also noticed that the background of some music magazines are very busy so in order to develop these conventions, I tweaked the colours a bit to make the front cover seem a bit funky. Also when I was doing my market research, I found out that my target market group wanted to see my magazine be summer themed and quite funky, so I delivered.
My music magazine challenges forms and conventions of real music magazines by using different types of poses in my images. For example in my contents page, I used a really bold image on the side of the contents page which is very audacious but also is subtle enough for the text to be the central attention of the contents page. The image used is not a traditional kind of image but does put a thought like that in the reader’s mind. As shown in my blog, the image is of the artist Kanibal having his back to the audience and turning his head around to face the audience with his chain hanging off from his mouth. The image is different from what readers get in other music magazines and I had thought when I was having the photos taken, that I wanted to challenge the conventions of music magazines through photos, which from one of them I have successfully done.
My music magazine represents particular social groups in various ways. The one specific social group that my music magazine represents are cool teenagers, such as ones who wear baggy clothing. The several ways in which this social group is represented is shown clearly in my double page spread, front cover and also my contents page. On the double page spread it shows the grime artist sitting down in a relaxed position, leaning against a wall, wearing baggy jeans, a baggy jumper, a long chain and fashionable gloves. His head is turned away from the camera to the side as if to imply that he is ‘cool’ and popular from his body language. I decided not to aim my music magazine towards other social groups because I specifically only wanted cool teenagers who are familiar with the genre grime to be interested in reading this magazine. If more cool teenagers read Grime UK then the magazine will portray a good look and will send a message that “if you are a teenager who is cool, you need to read this magazine in order to stay cool.”
The sort of media institution that would distribute my media product would be magazine stores, book stores and music stores. Generally the entertainment sector would be selling these magazines largely in magazine stores. The reason why this type of media institution would be selling a music magazine is because it is a magazine which fits perfectly in a magazine store and it is to do with music which is why some music stores may sell it as well. My music magazine would promote artists music to do with the genre that ‘Grime UK’ deals with, therefore it seems appropriate to have a music magazine in music stores.
For my music magazine the target audience are teenagers aged 14-19 who are typically ‘cool’ and may talk a bit of street slang. They specifically listen to grime music and perhaps very little r&b and hip-hop. This was my intended market from the beginning of the project and is my target market group because it is the type of social group that I am typically involved in, therefore I would know to a large extent what this particular market may want from a music magazine. I did not include any features or steer away from the young grime market because if I had, then someone who does not fit the description I wrote above may pick up the magazine which would make the magazine seem as if it was not as cool as those teenagers.
I addressed my audience by creating surveys on http://www.surveymonkey.com/ which is a website where any individual can create surveys to get answers to specific questions or for market research of any sort. I created a survey on this website as part of my market research and sent the link to my survey to every single contact on my contact list on hotmail. For me this was a very successful way of passing round questionnaires as it was much more convenient and more simplified in the sense that a template was already made. Additionally, the individuals that were taking part in the questionnaires were anonymous, which makes it more likely for the person to put down an honest answer and provide authentic results. I created a questionnaire to find out what my target market wanted from a music magazine, so I could include the things that my target market group wanted.
I attracted my audience in many ways. From the questionnaire I created, the results told me that my target market group wanted funky and exciting colours as a theme. Some participants replied exact colours as extra comments. I took these replies on board and chose a funky summery sky blue for the main background colour of my contents page and an orange-peach colour for the main background colour of my front cover. I created a design which consisted of three main colours, blue, peach and purple which would be the funky theme my audience wanted. I added some colour in a striking effect behind the ‘Grime UK’ title on my front cover to add originality.
Moreover, I attracted my audience by placing an artist in recognisable clothing and body actions which would be familiar to my specific audience. Due to the mise-en-scene in the image, some of which include the dangling chain, the hat and the gloves, the magazine automatically becomes attractive to my target market group because it is someone who is very similar to them. The audience think that from what the artist wears, his or her body position and the body/finger actions they create.
I have learnt a few things which I did not previously know about from the process of constructing this product. I have learnt about and largely increased my knowledge of Adobe Photoshop which I had never used before. The patch tool was a tool that ‘fixed’ photographs and generally replicated the parts of the photo that you wanted to replicate. This came in handy when I needed to replicate parts of the blue t-shirt to hide away the shadowing of the chain. Also, I learnt about blogger where I blogged my progression using stills. Blogger also allows the user to embed videos and insert sound clips as well. Although I did not upload a video or insert any sound clips, I did learn how to insert videos and sound clips.
From my preliminary task till now, I think that I have significantly improved my photo editing skills and designing skills. I have learnt many new things from when I was doing my preliminary task. I have learnt how to efficiently use a layer mask to erase parts of an image which I do not want to use. Learning this skill was very useful for me as I used a layer mask on two main images that I used. Below I have shown and explained how I used the layer mask to delete the parts of the image which would not be useful to me.
First of all, I copied the image I wanted to edit to Adobe Photoshop. I then copy and pasted the same image onto a new layer. I had to take this step because in Adobe Photoshop, a person cannot edit on the background layer. I made sure the background image is not seen by clicking on the little eye next 2 the highlighted thumbnail in the bottom eight hand corner.
Secondly, all I did was add a layer mask by clicking on the button in the bottom right hand corner box. I made it obvious that I have applied a layer mask by emphasising it with a black circle around the area which I used to apply the layer mask.
After creating the layer mask, I had the ability to erase parts of the picture that I did not want to use, such as in this case, I did not want to use the background. I could also paint parts of the picture back in if I had made a mistake which was very useful. Two colours are used with the layer mask which is black and white. Black is used to erase parts of the picture and white is used to paint parts of the picture back in once erased.
Using both the black and the white I ended up with a perfectly cut out image. I carried on using a layer mask because I thought that the photo could have benefitted from even more trimming around the edges.
Finally I have learnt that the final product when produced will not always come out as it seems on screen. The product may translate differently from what it should be, perhaps because of the size of paper or the type of printer used. To print off my product I used a photo printer on A4 paper using Windows photo gallery, to ensure that I could print off my product at the highest resolution. However, as I stated before, the product sometimes may not translate as well as you think which is why a very small part of the side of the magazine is missing. I attempted to overcome this problem by shifting the background image around, but that unfortunately put my composition out of sync. If I had tabloid sized paper then this
