Becci-AS-media-coursework: 2009

Evaluation of my Music Magazine Coursework

For my coursework I have planned, designed and constructed the front page, contents page and a double page spread of a music magazine. For this task I chose to produce an ‘Indie’ music magazine. The choices behind this include my liking this genre of music, but also, I feel that with this genre I could really make something different as it is all about individuality. Beforehand I looked at many different magazines in order to know about the normal conventions, layouts and image types. This helped a lot with the design of my magazine as it enabled me to plan things like what sort of shot to use for the cover, positioning of text to make some parts more prominent than others and also the colour schemes.

In what way does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of realmedia products?

Looking at the conventions of music magazines, I decided to follow them entirely. I chose to do this because I felt that this is what would create a likeness between my own magazine and an existing music magazine. Some of the choices that I made were actually because they seemed to be the more sensible option. This included having the masthead in the top left hand corner. Logically thinking when you look at a magazine, the element that tells you what the product is would be the masthead. The way of which magazines are displayed is in a fashion that usually allows the viewer to see the top left hand corner, which shows that it would be ideal to have the title there.
The rule of having most of the cover lines on the left hand side is again a sensible option for the purpose of the display of the product in the shop. There is also the unique selling point, for which I have used posters. I have also displayed the USP on the cover in a fairly conventional manner as it is all sectioned off into a corner. This helps with not taking away from the main article whilst the boldness of the background colour allows the eye to be drawn to it. I feel that I have challenged the conventions of some magazines in using many geometrical shapes to form backgrounds to text and images. I like the way the boldness of the corners makes the overall image more striking and the angles take away from it looking just like a word document.
I feel that all of the other conventions have been followed as I wanted to play it safe. Although taking risks can be worth it, I felt that I could have taken away from the aspect of it being a magazine if I had started changing the conventions. I feel like my magazine is very similar to NME, apart from the fact that Indie Monster is focussing on newer bands. If I were to re-do the coursework, I would probably try and challenge the conventions slightly more than I have done. I have followed the conventions of page shape and size, mast head, selling line, cover lines and so on.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine has represented the social group of young people who enjoy indie music. I feel that this group has been represented in an objective manner through the use of colours, shape and language. Firstly, I feel that the use of two primary colours works well as it looks bright and vibrant, representing an excitable, energetic social group. The boldness and sharp corners of some of the shapes that I have used also suggests a youthfulness and energy. The language shows how the magazine can be for males and females, for example, it talks about fashion advice from Alex Turner and Alexa Chung, creating a more diverse audience.
The representation of the social group seems to be all round fun, bubbly and vivacious. From the paint on their faces to show a quirky and unique side that juxtaposes with the sharp, bold lines of the outlines of text. I feel that this can symbolize the difference between the band off stage and on stage, which was discussed amongst the double page spread.

What kind of media institution will distribute your media product and why?

I would distribute my media product most likely by the development hell institution. This is because they currently only have two magazines, neither of which is similar to my magazine. This would enable the company to use an appropriate amount of advertising on the magazine as they do not have another product like it. Whilst trying to reach this decision, I immediately knew to rule out IPC media, as they already have NME. NME is the most similar magazine to Indie Monster to my knowledge. Also, as Indie Monster is aimed at up and coming bands, larger institutions would probably want more famous people on the covers of their magazines. The advantages of having a small independent publisher include flexibility among the company and also possibly more care and time spent on deciding whether an article is relevant or the spec of quality required is satisfactory.
On one hand, having one company selling many products that are very similar could be an advantage as they will have one common area of expertise to sell many products, however, to have a wide variety of products will expand the target audience for the institution and therefore maximise profits. This is why the more independent option of development hell would probably be a wiser choice. I feel that having an institution that currently only has two other magazines will allow the company to put more effort and time into it. Nevertheless, the companies with more magazines are likely to make higher profits and therefore have more employees for each magazine. I would be happy for development hell to have my magazine as the two magazines that they do have are doing well with advertising and sales etc. This shows that it is a reliable institution.
The Development Hell institution currently publishes two magazines, “The Word” and “Mixmag” which are both music magazines. This shows that they are likely to want another music magazine when and if they decide on distributing another media product. This is because they probably are a team of people who like music and therefore find it easy to market and distribute music products.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my product from the start has been a combination of male and female, however, predominantly male. The age range was between sixteen and twenty-one. I decided on this as the Indie genre is quite a recent thing and so older people may not be so interested in this. Also, because I have chosen to make my magazine all about up and coming indie bands, the older generation would probably already have their favourite bands from when they were young, where as, younger people’s music taste is more varied I would say.
The mode of address that I used was respectable in the sense that it was not patronising but also not too intelligent as it could confuse people and therefore causing them to lose interest. The language style I chose to use was simple but with a sense of intelligence. Linking this back to the analysis of other magazines that I looked at the article in my magazine is more complex than just question and answer, however, it is not an in-depth article that is based on connotations and reading into the text. This way the readers will be able to read it quickly without feeling confused, but also without feeling patronised. An example of the mode of address that I used is when I say “Nici comments” and “Zoe laughs”, which allows the interview to be incorporated into a written article. Also the use of simple language, such as “they love the music, the art and the fans” shows that it is an easy read, but not as simple that it becomes like it is aimed for a child audience.
My magazine targets the audience through colour choices, as red has connotations of energy, romance and anger, the blue has connotations of energy and sadness, which shows that overall, the cover of my magazine portrays energy. This is also shown with the masthead. As monsters usually move quite a lot, a sense of energy is created again. The idea of energy links to my target audience as they are young and active. Also, as they are students they are likely to be clubbing and going out a lot.
The cover lines on the cover are very different as I was trying to attract all sorts of people as it covers music, fashion and romance. This allows people to see the diverse topics covered in the magazines before they purchase, and it will also probably encourage them to purchase too.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The main thing I used to attract my audience was the front cover image. This is because it is the first thing the customer will see and therefore will probably be the deciding factor as to whether or not they consider buying the product. The mise en scene of the image was all designed to target a mixed audience of between sixteen and twenty one. The costumes that I chose are that of the indie style, chequered shirts and bright colours. This is to portray the purpose of the magazine through the main image. My only downfall with the costume was with Eleanor (blonde hair, left on cover) as her clothing was completely different to the other three. My decision behind this was to show a different personality behind each person, but this was not affective as the other three band members where dressed to similarly.
The setting was chosen as a plain white wall for a backdrop. This was simply to allow the background to be cut out and changed. The red background was to appeal to a mixed audience as it is a fairly neutral colour which creates a unisex vibe. This also creates a sense of excitement as semiotics of red includes romance and danger. But it is also a bold colour, which will make the product eye-catching and more aesthetically appealing. The make-up used all links in to the double page spread and the bands single. The paint on their faces was to create a sense of fun and something that really is individual. It should also create a unique edge for the magazine and appeal to the indie audience. The positioning was designed to try and represent that of Queen. I felt that by doing this it is showing the audience that the band will someday be as successful as Queen. This will make them think that they should start to listen to the band and buy the magazine to read about any other ‘next-big-things’.
It was not only the image that I used to attract the audience. It was also the title, as ‘INDIE’ is more prominent it will immediately target a younger audience and as it is followed by ‘monster’ it shows a more male dominated audience. The connotations of monster could include large, scary and evil. This shows that young and confident people would buy the magazine, as older people would probably laugh at the concept of a monster. As the word is in lower case and smaller than ‘INDIE’ it suggests that it is less threatening. The cover lines are used affectively also as they talk about relationships and fashion, which nowadays are a very unisex thing rather than just for females. I feel that in order to attract more of a male dominated audience I should have used more males in my band. This could have linked more to the cover lines to show that they are targeted at males.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your magazine?

This coursework has taught me a lot about technologies. Before the preliminary task I had no idea of how to use fireworks and I didn’t know how I was going to use it to make a magazine. Also, with photo shop, prior to this task I had never used photo shop. I found it quite easy to start to use these programs; however, completing this coursework will increase my confidence in my ability to use some programs. I feel that I would be able to use the programs again quite easily, showing that I have learnt a lot just from making my magazine. With reference to images, I learnt a lot about angles, shot type and lighting; this allowed me to confidently take the right shots for my magazine. I as already aware of how to use a digital camera in the sense that I could take a photo, however, with the information I learnt I could visualise how the page was going to look and see which shots would work best on the page.
Looking at fireworks, I learnt how to rotate items, create outlines for text and how to insert images. With regard to image size and manipulation, within the preliminary task I learnt about how to resize the image to the perfect size to fit the space. I also learnt not to resize the images when on fireworks as the proportions are not kept in mind and the image becomes distorted in regards to the fact that it is stretched either horizontally or vertically. With text manipulation, I didn’t so much as to learn how to manipulate the text, but I did learn how to manipulate the text effectively, for example which colours and fonts work and which ones don’t.

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

When I now look back on the magazine that I produced for the preliminary task I can immediately see how my skill and understanding of magazines and the media has improved. I feel that the main improvement comes from the use of cover lines. On my school magazine it seems that I was scared to clutter the page, possibly in case I got something wrong. However, on Indie Monster the cover lines fit perfectly around the image leaving very little space which also makes the magazine more interesting. I also think that the choice of image is a lot more suitable on the music magazine as I thought through the layout and cover lines before the image. This means that the image relates to the main cover line rather than vice versa.
The use of the barcode, USP and price all suggest a more professional magazine compared to the preliminary task. For the contents page, the images on the music magazine are so much clearer, as for YourSpace the images were distorted whilst resizing them. The white background for the text for Indie Monster makes it easier to read rather than the darker blue of YourSpace and also the use of colours and angles work a lot better on Indie Monster were I have considered semiotics and how well colours work together etc.
As I mentioned in the above question, my technical skills where largely improved with the process of the preliminary task. The main benefit was for me to just become familiar with the functions of fireworks and how text can work. For example, on YourSpace the images on the contents page are very distorted, so I realised that I had to resize the images before putting them into fireworks, which worked a lot better.
Overall I feel that the preliminary task enabled me to make mistakes and recognise them so that I was aware of things such as properly resizing images before I made the real thing. This helped me to make fewer mistakes and to realise what does and doesn’t work. This has helped to make Indie Monster better than it would have been.