In what way does your magazine use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
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Starting with my front cover, this conforms with many conventions of real media products. It has a large title along with a range of font sizes to make the cover more interesting and dynamic to help it appeal to customers. It has a large mid shot on the front of the feature artist. The font colours that I have chosen develop and also challenge the conventions of real products as I have chosen bold colours which are simple and stand out, which many magazines use as a bold colour is what makes a magazine stand out on the shelf. However by using these bold colours against a greyscale backdrop this enhances them even more because their colours don’t have to compete with the photo on the front cover. Also because I have used a greyscale picture as my main photograph this will actually give me an advantage over other conventional magazines not just music magazines, because a lot of magazines have glossy colour photos on the front and have lots of fonts. Some front covers also have multiple photos on the front. Mine will stand out because it is a single photo, therefore simple which will make it seem larger than any other magazines on the shelf, the fact that its greyscale also means that its darker in contrast to a lot of magazines and this will make it stand out on the shelf against all the whites and pinks etc. the grey and darkness of the photograph allows my font to stand out more as well making it easier to read form a distance so someone will notice mine on the shelf and be able to read it easier than some other magazines. I have made sure that I used a font style, Impact, that is simple making it easier to read so readers can recognise the artists who will be featuring in the edition. The shadows behind the text differ for the different pieces of text, their importance, size and location, for example those bits of text located over a dark part do not need a lot of shadow as they already stand out well enough however those words over the slightly lighter areas of the cover such as the main feature ‘Arron Altree’ have a darker shadow behind them than ‘the massive hysteria’ as they are less important than the featuring article. This is similar to other magazines that use shadows, as they will need some text to stand out more than others. My magazine also has a barcode on the front with the price next to it and the edition date. Many magazines have their barcodes on the front because it is often includes an ISSN on it which identifies the title of consecutive publications and is a code that is accepted internationally so it allows the big publication companies to have ease of global distribution as well as having the barcode at easy access on the front for distributors to scan as well as retailers who are going to be selling it on. Having the price next to this is done by all magazines and is just a simple conventional location for magazines to have their prices so that shoppers can easily locate the price and determine if they can afford it. My magazine also features a smaller font here as well which is also conventional as the retailers would really prefer that you bought the magazine regardless of price however it is the other way round if the magazine is for some reason on offer and advertisers would make a large statement on the front of the magazine somewhere so that more people would buy it. My magazine also has a tagline ‘Music and Anarchy Selections with Hits from Underdogs in Print’ this is developing the conventions of a music magazine as not all magazines have taglines and few have ones whose are an acronym for the title of the magazine. My magazine front cover challenges conventions with its title; I have used a combination of letter styles, fonts and colours, although I have kept them 2D. This will attract readers to my magazine because its different and it stands out, also because on this particular front cover the colours on the title are the only other ones that are slightly different to the rest of the font colours and even those of the picture meaning that they are completely different and will stand out dramatically against the rest of the cover. I also have an offer for readers to win a £100 iTunes voucher, this is going with existing media conventions because when people see that they might get something for free then they are more likely to buy the magazine as they feel like they are getting more for their money, particularly if they are going to win that much money.
My contents page conforms to many existing media conventions and I think that this works in my favour as I think that people want a contents page to be easily navigable. Some people are afraid of using contents pages and feel that they might not be able to use one properly and that they may get overwhelmed by the amount of content or the busyness of it all, I have however kept my contents page simple and easy to use, 3 straight columns mean that you can see easily what the articles are about with larger fonts for the subheadings and page numbers so that the reader is hunting for the right article and tiny little page number around the page. A large simple calm picture at the top also helps to focus the readers attention on the feature article just like in an edition of VIBE as this is the main focal point of the page and its not too messy of cluttered allowing readers effectively to come and ‘get what they came for’. I used an editor’s note to give a basic overview of the magazine just like in Kerrang and mention the feature artist in this edition, this is so that the reader can see what the edition is all about and what main features are worth reading. It also makes the magazine seem more friendly like the reader can feel in touch with the editor as its like a personal note to them telling them what’s good about this edition. One of the ways I have challenged media conventions with this contents page is the fact that I have used the word inside instead of the word contents, as this is used the world over but by using a different word this will catch my readers eye and make them think that its not just another music magazine but something that’s different and interesting.
My double page spread has its unique points and its conformants. The title is nice and large like a regular double page spread, this allows the reader to instantly recognise the artist that they have seen featured on the front cover and in the contents pages its also got a nice large image on the left as the main photo this gives the readers eyes a chance to rest after all the writing on the right. One of the differences about the photo on the left to many DPS (double page spreads for future reference) is that you cant see the artists face, one of the reasons of this is because the artist is new onto the professional music scene, and the fact that he’s turned away and you cant see his face shows that you can see him, he’s been heard about but not yet properly discovered by everyone. I’ve also used greyscale for both photos on each page for a number of reasons, it conforms many current media conventions in magazine of making sure that your front cover, contents page and feature article, my DPS, all link together is more ways than one so first of all they are all in greyscale to allow for the reader to make the connection between them all, this also means that because the reader will have seen greyscale on the front cover and then on the contents page then they will instantly recognise that page as they are flicking through the magazine. This is also the same story with the font, keeping the turquoise means that readers will actively recognise the theme throughout the magazine as well as the font style with the subheadings. This is similar to what one edition of Kerrang where black and yellow where used on the front cover as well as the contents page and the DPS in which the article on the feature artist was located. I have also used a lot of smaller text in my interview with the artist as those who buy music magazines often buy because they actually want t read about a certain artist or band so they want content just like in many other magazines I have used varying questions to help tell the artists life story and how they’re doing in the industry and try to squeeze a slightly controversial quote from them which I have located in the centre of the article ‘they’re a cracking bunch of lads and we get on really well together…well most of the time!’ suggesting that they’re might be a bit of unrest within the group. I have used a small font for the page numbers like all music magazines they are of a size able to be read but do not take up too much room on the page. I have also added something which is developing in media at the moment, the use of social networking, I have included a link to a facebook page and a YouTube channel, (these are not real however they are for the purposes of this magazine) these will allow my readers to gain access to extra content and after they have joined the facebook group or subscribed to the YouTube channel then as a magazine or a distribution centre I can pump out advertisement and extra content to potential customers easily via this. However I would have to be careful not to give out too much free content otherwise the magazine would not be worth buying.
Who would be the audience for your media product? how did you address/attract you audience?
Which kind on media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I did some quick research on the Internet and found a company called Bauer Media Group (BMG) who are a print publishing giant based in Germany and whose worldwide circulation of magazines amounts to 38 million magazines a week which is vast. I think that this would be a suitable publishing company as some of the magazines which it publishes are every successful such as the music magazine Kerrang, which has really been my business model and some of my inspiration has come from this magazine. I could also use the same media institution that distributes VIBE music magazine as they have a large network of cross convergence and using other forms of media. As they have recently been improving things like their website and a large online presence compared to some magazines who have minimal content online. VIBE is however a quarterly magazine meaning it is released 4 times a year and my magazine is designed to be a monthly magazine. However some of their figures are a bit disappointing with only 800,000 copies in circulation in 2007 which is massively low compared to the joint output of BMG however we must be reminded that VIBE is only a quarterly magazine it is not changing regularly so not as many copies of it are being sold but I think that my magazine would not have to worry about sales figures as much because it will be a monthly magazine, however I believe the investors that own it InterMedia Partners would definitely be able to help with online content and would help my magazine progress electronically and digitally in the ever increasing world of eBooks and iBooks on the IOS allowing people to buy and carry digital copies of the magazine with them.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The newest bit of technology I have learnt to use in this process has been Blogger. I have never used the site before let alone blogged about anything either so this was a whole new experience for me. I enjoyed using the Internet blogging service; it was easy to use but is lacking in one thing a good spell checker. It does have one but it is not very good and misses out lower case I's which is rather frustrating. I also learnt to use Prezi which is a free online presentation program which allows you to create presentations and fly through them with the camera, I also had to learn how to embed them so you could view it straight form the blog without having to go to a link and on to another website. I found that this was a fun and interesting way of presenting evaluations and other presentations.
The other main programme that I have used throughout the whole production of my magazine is Adobe Photoshop CS5 this truly is a marvel of modern technological invention, I know I sound like an old person baffling on but it is true, this programme is a wonderful you’ve learnt the ropes its simple and can work wonders. I've learnt that to truly utilize a program you've got to push it to its potential, I've been using Photoshop for a number of years now however I really started using its every option when I began this piece of coursework, anyone can just put a couple of filters on a photograph but it takes real skill to make anything look professional and I think ive pretty much cracked it, I thoroughly enjoyed using this program.
In terms of technological hardware, I used an SLR Canon Digital EOS 500 to take the photos for my magazine; this is again a delightful piece of kit to work with. I used a wide-angle lens in order to achieve the desired effect. It's high-resolution images and its ease to use format made it the ideal camera for the job in hand. For editing the photos, I used my own Macbook pro also an amazing piece of equipment it’s fast and reliable and was the best computer for the task I needed to do.
The newest bit of technology I have learnt to use in this process has been Blogger. I have never used the site before let alone blogged about anything either so this was a whole new experience for me. I enjoyed using the Internet blogging service; it was easy to use but is lacking in one thing a good spell checker. It does have one but it is not very good and misses out lower case I's which is rather frustrating. I also learnt to use Prezi which is a free online presentation program which allows you to create presentations and fly through them with the camera, I also had to learn how to embed them so you could view it straight form the blog without having to go to a link and on to another website. I found that this was a fun and interesting way of presenting evaluations and other presentations.
The other main programme that I have used throughout the whole production of my magazine is Adobe Photoshop CS5 this truly is a marvel of modern technological invention, I know I sound like an old person baffling on but it is true, this programme is a wonderful you’ve learnt the ropes its simple and can work wonders. I've learnt that to truly utilize a program you've got to push it to its potential, I've been using Photoshop for a number of years now however I really started using its every option when I began this piece of coursework, anyone can just put a couple of filters on a photograph but it takes real skill to make anything look professional and I think ive pretty much cracked it, I thoroughly enjoyed using this program.
In terms of technological hardware, I used an SLR Canon Digital EOS 500 to take the photos for my magazine; this is again a delightful piece of kit to work with. I used a wide-angle lens in order to achieve the desired effect. It's high-resolution images and its ease to use format made it the ideal camera for the job in hand. For editing the photos, I used my own Macbook pro also an amazing piece of equipment it’s fast and reliable and was the best computer for the task I needed to do.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
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