Marnia Boyle

Evaluation

12Gy

(1) In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real music magazines? My music magazine does use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of a of a real music magazine. My front page uses forms and conventions in that I have used a medium close-up image which makes it the optical center and is where my audience will first look. I have used left and right alignment so that the readers are directed through my front page. I have used a large master head so that it will stand out to reader and by incorporating colour to my cover lines to make certain features stand out. My front page challenges a real magazine as my barcode is positioned at the bottom left hand corner, this is so it doesnt distract from the image and get in the way of cover lines. Another way my front cover challenges a real music magazine is that I have revolved it around the audience meaning I have based it on the Feminist Theory male gaze, Laura Mullvey believed that women are designed to give men pleasure and so by using a women on the front cover, I am pulling the male audience in however her facial expressions show that that its not for the pleasure of men as she looks quite stern and only shown with a slight smile which could be persuading the male audience. My front cover develops forms and conventions from the Mise-en-scene, this meaning the costumes, props, lighting and actions. These are developed forms and conventions of a real magazine as I havent included props or actions of the model, the lighting is bold and the costume is quite casual. My Contents page uses forms and conventions as I have integrated the positioning theory for my layout, I have done research in to how I wanted my contents page to look by looking at existing music contents pages and taking ideas to create my own. I have included a range of images in my contents page to make it more exciting for the readers and give a little insight in to what is contained throughout the magazine. I have also included the date on the contents page for readers acknowledgment and to save them skipping back to the front. I havent seen this on many existing music magazines but I feel like it helps with certain content I have included in my contents page and means it challenges a real music magazine as its a rare feature. Another way that my contents page challenges real music magazines is that I have a little more content then I have seen in existing contents pages, by adding a little more detail in to what is on each page in the magazine and by including a review from the actual magazine (editor) to make the contents page more interesting. My double page spread uses forms and conventions as I have included a full interview with the featured artist from the front cover which is what the magazine is based on. I have included images to make the double page spread look eventful and incorporated the positioning theory to make the double page look more presentable instead of cluttered as there is a large bulk of text to present in a double page. My double page spread challenges real music magazines as I have positioned my images in a particular way by

Marnia Boyle

Evaluation

12Gy

embedding them in the text and including half an image down the side of the page, I think this makes the page look alluring and fun. Another way that my double page spread challenges real music magazines is that I have created a Top 5 songs on Playlist chart which is spoken about in the interview however I wanted to make it a little more engaging and highlight the topic as I think readers would be intrigued to hear about the artists choice in songs maybe before reading the interview or as a sneaky preview. I havent seen any other real music magazines include this type of presentation which is why it challenges them. (2) How does your music magazine represent particular social groups? My music magazine represents a particular social group which is Indie through the Mise-en-scene. The costume that my artist is wearing on the front cover is a knitted cardigan; this shows that she is relaxed and casual when it comes to clothing. The look I have gone for is natural curly hair which could mean she is chilled and untroubled about her appearance. However the bold eye makeup (eyeliner) and bright red lips show a sense of wildness and strength which links back to Feminist Theory. She also has piercings which could symbolize a rebellious side. The lighting is bright and focused on the artists face thats the main focus of the front cover. For her actions, the model is staring straight in to the camera which means shes making eye contact with audience to persuade them. She also has a slight smile which symbolizes a chilled persona. For my front cover image there are no props or setting as it doesnt fit conventions of other magazines which means you do not see props in a front cover usually as it distracts from the model. For the contents page I have included an image of the artist from the front cover so that readers understand that the artist is the main focus of the magazine, the artist has a happier expression with devil horn hand gestures which indicates the artist has another side and makes the contents page more fun for readers. The devil horns could also symbolise an edgy side to the artists music. Indie is being represented through my contents page features, a mixture of Lana Del Rey, Kings of Leon and Two Door Cinema Club which are all under the music genre indie.

Marnia Boyle

Evaluation

12Gy

My double page spread represents the genre Indie mainly through the interview, the artist talks about the music industry and family life which can be relatable for readers. Including a Top 5 Songs on Playlist on my double page spread indicates the type of music fitting the genre Indie are bands such as The 1975 and Kodaline which are quite mellow sounds and conveys the social group that would be interested in reading the interview. The artist is pictured in another two images for the double page spread smiling and pulling funny hand gestures, this shows a humorous side to the artist instead of being perceived as an edgy strong artist. This relates to the social groups and gives a good representation of how the genre Indie is perceived. (3) What kind of media institution might distribute your music magazine and why? The kind of music intuition that might distribute my magazine could be music magazine companies such as NME, G and Kerrange as it is a way to promote each others magazine, other than your own. Another way is through photography as it is successful for attracting your audience and they could show a keen interest in the type of images I show in my magazine. Another media intuition is newsagents and supermarkets for more publicity and to also help promote the stores at the same time as it is attracting customers to the shop. This includes all three; front cover, contents page and double page spread as they come under one magazine however the content of all three determined what kind of institution might distribute my magazine. (4) Who would be the audience for your music magazine? The audience for my music magazine would be teenagers and young adults aged between 16-25. As its an Indie magazine thats the genre that would be interested in it and the interest that would be popular for the target audience would be gigs, photography, fashion and gossip. My audience would be female and male, however might be aimed more towards females as the colour scheme used is more girly and the male audiences tend to read a magazine which involves more related interested such as sport, T.V and drinking e.g. G magazine. My contents page and double page spread are suitable for my audience as I have used informal text through the content and interview so that teens and young adults are more comfortable when reading as it is the language they are used to and might find it more humorous to read. For my contents page I have included information about recent gigs and 140 songs to download! which is what my audience are eager to read about as they are both topics that are constantly changing in the music industry. For the double page spread I have included a Top 5 on playlist which will be useful for my young audience as knowing from an artists point of view what their favorite songs are will influence readers.

Marnia Boyle

Evaluation

12Gy

(5) How did you attract/address you audience in the forms and conventions used in your music magazine? I was able to attract/address my audience in the forms and conventions firstly through my front cover which is the most important as that is the first step to enticing the audience as its the first page they see. As my audience is teens and young adults aged between 16-25, having a female on the front cover may be more attracting as its something for females to look up to and males to find attractive. The cover lines such as Lana Del Ray and Arctic Monkeys are a great way to pull in readers as they are very popular artists at the moment so by including information about them in my magazine will be appealing to my audience. Another way to attract /address my audience is through a main cover line such as comeback interview this will make the audience eager to read more inside. This all links to the Hypodermic needle, the audience is injected with ideas from media which means they are being pulled in through the cover lines. I feel like this is the appropriate way to attract/address the audience to my magazine, through topics about the genre of music rather than attracting them for the inappropriate reasons such as having a female model in barely any clothing to attract attention however for some male readers it might be a bonus on top of them liking the artists music too. My contents page addresses teens and young adults as topics such as Instruments I have included, this is a way to inspire my young audience to take up creative hobbies such as playing the keyboard and it also links back to my genre of music Indie as this instrument is played in a lot of bands. Another way that I have tried to attract my audience on my contents page is by including a review from the magazine editor Revelation Review this is so my audience have some direction in to knowing about the artists featuring on the magazine from the editors point of view and in the long run helping the audience that are indecisive about the album. For my double page spread, I have tried to attract my audience by including more detailed questions in the interview with the featured artist Samira by finding out interesting facts that no one knows about the her, this will excite my readers as its an audience that are at the age where an artist personal life and music career in very intriguing. (6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your music magazine? From constructing my music magazine I have learnt a lot about technology from this project. Learning how to use Apple Macs was the first step as they were the computers that we would be doing are work on to create are music magazine; front page, contents page and double spread. It was slightly

Marnia Boyle

Evaluation

12Gy

harder than expected at first as it was a completely different program to Windows but I managed to work it out quickly. Photoshop was one of the most important but trickiest programs to work, it is what we used to create our music magazines as it produces the highest quality images; removing the backgrounds of images with a green screen involved and using text, colours and fonts as there was a much larger variety than any other program e.g. word. During the process of taking our images for are music magazines, we were able to use Canon1100D cameras, this was great as we were able to capture high quality photos which would fit the forms and conventions. Another big part of the learning process for technology was how to upload work and creating a Blogger account for my work to be shown on, we used websites such as Slideshare and Scribd to upload are work and then copying on to Blogger so that my teachers could see my work. I had never used these sites before so it was a completely new experience. When making my music magazine pages, I was able to use sites such as Defont to download different fonts to make my magazine different and fit the ides and plans of how I wanted my music magazine pages to look. Now that I have learnt all about this new technology, I am able to use it in future work and develop on it correctly. I carried out using the same technology in all three of my pages and got progressively quicker by the time I was on the double page spread as I was more familiar with the new technology I was using. (7) Looking back at your Preliminary Task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it (the preliminary task) to the full product (the music magazine)? From my preliminary task, to my full product (music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread) I feel like I have learnt a lot on how to construct a magazine. For my preliminary task we created a college magazine front cover on word meaning we had limited fonts and sizes. I didnt know much on the layout of a magazines front cover, contents page and double page spread so didnt have any cover lines, my images were bad quality because they werent taken on professional cameras. I didnt use the right language as I didnt know how to pull the audience in by using it. I didnt know about positioning theory so my layout was not great and it looked all jumbled. However when It came to my music magazine on a whole, we created them on Photoshop so my images could be manipulated. I knew how to use cover lines, could use a variety of fonts. I knew about the positioning theory so I could adapt it into all three pages. Using language such as exclusive was a way to pull the audience in and be surveillance. I also done a lot of research on real life music magazines and looked at ones with the same genre as me so I could be influenced by how to create my own front cover, contents page and double page spread. Overall my work has very much developed since the preliminary task through technology and learning more about media in general.