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.

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.

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?Through the process of constructing my music magazine I learnt how to use a green screen to create images which I could later crop out within photo shop, which made using things like the magnet line and background eraser much easier. Although background eraser sometimes cut of bits of artist I was able to use photo shop to colour match and draw back in the little bits that had cropped out.The magnetic tool enabled me to trace around the edge of the artist to then cut and paste into my pages of my magazine to then resize and refine erasing any background that was not suppose to be there.Within photo shop I was able to manipulate/change font, using a range of font sizes and types and experiment with 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.I also discovered how to use internet sites to create my own individual barcode to then place onto my front cover of my music magazine.

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.