Friday, 3 April 2009

Final outcome of my media product, Fuse music magazine


Front Cover



Contents page


Double Page Spread

Evaluation

In what ways does your Media product ise, develop or challenge form and conventions of real Media products?
When I first started designing my music magazine I decided to use some ideas from ‘Dazed and Confused’ magazine, because it represents bands/music artists that I like therefore would be a good idea to create a magazine for my own liking, therefore I will know more about that genre, which is Dance/RnB and how the layout will be. I used the idea of having a singer/performer as the main headline and also as the background of the magazine cover. The girl i used as a new singer was a student from my college and to make her look like an RnB singer I dressed her up in a black slimmning dress and put bright colours of makeup on her face. I did this to make the colours represent the beats of music, to show how happy music can make you feel.
To develop my written plans i produced the magazine cover, contents page and double page spread on Desktop Publisher but after creating it the first time i realised it needed some drastic changes to make it look like a real media production like the 'Dazed and Confused' magazine.
When taking photos for all pages of the magazine i used a variety of people and shots such as an extreme close up for the main image on the cover to show the colours on her face and her facial expression. As for images in the contents page most of them were medium shots to show full body language and the clothes they are wearing to show that they represent the stereotype of RnB singers and fans. Challenging real Media Products i found the hardest, as i didn't want to make it unrealistic, but to do this i have focused my audience on females because most music magazines are targeted at a specific genre and at both genders but not necessarily all types of magazines are aimed at both male and female. I thought it would be a change to do this for my media product. I have stuck to a typical magazine layout, having images, plugs, headlines, bylines, title along the top, prices and barcodes to have it true to life of real media products and my aim was to create a music magazine like the 'dazed and Confused' as it is the genre i was basing my product on.


How does your Media product represent particular social groups?
The main social groups my media product has represented is of course the female nature, showing this with images of females, all at a similar age and wearing same styled clothes, keeping update with fashion. The Artists i have mentioned are Brintey Spears who i took a photo of a girl, aged 17 and on the top of a window sill, with an arched back pose, to look sexy and femanine and i did this because Britney is known so be one of the sexiest music artists. The idea for the picture of Sez, which is on the contents page, labelled to be on page 75, is to show a different style of RnB, rather than being all about being 'sexy' it's more about the sweet innocent, 'girl next door' image and i did this with having more clothing on the girl rather than wearing a shirt dress, also wearing the in fashion patterened tights and her facial expression is looking down, quite innocent like. This image would represent the more quiet girls. Also another Group i have mentioned are the Bloody Beetroots, they are a popular DJ group and perform at lot of Gigs, i did not create a photo of them as their image would be hard to create as they were specially designed masks as their identity, but having an article of them listed on the contents page, page 11 it shows an interest in them.


What kind of Media institution might distribute your Media product and why?
I think that the best Media Institution to distribute would be music stores such as 'HMV', as they sell CD's, DVD's and posters of all genres and my media product would fit in well with this and would hit the target audience. This may also increase sales in the stores if they get people who are interested in my music magazine production 'Fuse'. An alternative to this would be huge, well known supermarkets such as Asda or Tescos, the right aged people will be there and there will be a large number of people who will see it as lots if people go food shopping. The only downfall would be that there is already a wide variety of different types of magazines in them stores so it would have a lot of competition. Perhaps smaller News Agents would be a good place to have my media product distributed, it will still have the right aged people there and a reasonably high popularity of people in the News Agents as they are usually allocated in home places, close for people to walk to if they need something quickly. There is also the idea of having it advertised on the television and radio as they have a large popularity rate, most people in the world have either one of them, this would make it easier to let the audience know when the next issue is next out and what may be included in it without having to go to shop first to find out.

Finally computers and laptops nowadays have adverts on web pages and instead of having online games advertised, my media product could be advertised there, however it is not as simple to get hold of, unless the website for the magazine 'www.fuse.co.uk' would sell copies therefore people can then click on the advertisement and buy their magazine online.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
Origianlly i was aiming my media product at 16-21 year olds, male, female and interested in the Dance/RnB but after creating my piece it seemed more relevant to be aimed at females, as it was bright and colourful with femamine colours such as pink and purple, lots of the images i took were also of females. This does limit who buys the magazine and i should have really considered making it aimed at males to because then perhaps if it was distributed it would have a wider audience and would be more popular.


How did you attract/address your audience?
I attracted my audience with bright colours like yellow, green and pink. I used plenty of female images, all in clothing that is fashionable and related to the 'sexy' image Dance/RnB singers try to portray. I created this image the best with the 'Sky' singer character on the cover, as i made her interview about her new success, so i put a happy, bright closeup of her face on the front and then used other images i had taken of her in a black dress looking relaxed and femanine. Most images did have the females dressed up in dresses and posed to attract attention to them. I also used a different race of people, i thought it would be good to use a different race, then it has a greater range of audience to target the product at. I did use an alternative image rather than of females by putting at image of the Pacha nightclub, to show the magazine is not all about female singers/music artists but other Dance/RnB things in the world.
The age range i targeted at was 16-21 so the images i used were of people around that age otherwise they wouldn't be relevant to the magazine.


What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The first new technology to me was the Blogger site, i had never been on it before and found it hard to use when i first started posting posts. The more and more a looked around on my Blogger account the easier it got to use.
When i had uploaded my photos onto my desktop, to edit my photos i had to use Photoshop Editor, i think this was that hardest software and i still find it very difficult to use. The benefit of using this was that i could use many different effects to edit my images. These effects helped the most for the main image on the cover because the original image was all in colour but i wanted only the makeup on Sky's face to stand out and the rest of her face, hair and body to be black, grey and white. To do this i had to created different layers and change each layer to what i want it to be like and then merge them together, it took some time but the outcome was worth it, it created the image i was trying to show which was the colours to represent the beat and happiness in music.
The easiest technology for me was using the Desktop Publisher, i have used it plenty of times before and have learnt how to do new different things on it for example laying out the pages to have text columns so the double page spread could look more like an article.


Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back I realise it takes a lot of hard work to create a good product and that you can’t always get it right straight away, it takes more than once to get it right but the downside to that is that in the Media Industry I won’t always have a second chance so perhaps I need to spend more time researching what I am doing before designing and getting straight into the task. Also that the programmes that real magazines editors will use will have much more better developed workshops to used so they can edit their images much better and use different effects. I think that i have massively improved since the preliminary task, i have used more images, filled up space with relevant plugs or images. I think i have learnt to use my time more wisely and use my own knowledge on things rather than choose a topic that is more popular for example i was considering creating a magazine for the Indie image simply because i knew it was more popular but because i have more knowledge on Dance/RnB it was much more easier to do. As a whole the full main product is a better outcome and shows i have improved
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Friday, 13 March 2009

The outcome of my music magazine and double page spread.




Basically i think that the only part of my magazine which is good are the title and the image. 'Sky speaks out..' quote needs to be more snappier and look less tabloid like. The Pacha night club and Rhianna interview are not needed at all, they need to be replaced by something better with perhaps a new original image. I have forgotten to put a date and issue on it and a bar code, they may be small details but all magazines have them not just music magazines. The 'free inside' needs removing and the '70 page special' needs to be the same font as 'Britain's top artists' as they are related and also needs to be clear that it's the top music artists.





When i printed the double page spread out i realised how big the text was and that it needed to be much smaller which therefor means that more interview is needed. The advertisement at the right needs to be taken off so there is more space for the interview. Also the image of 'Sky' needs to be re thought about, it could be better and needs to be more images, if i opened a magazine i would expect more on the interview. Also there needs to be some pull lines and an introduction to what this page is, i have only gone straight to the interview without letting he audience know what it is.




Once again when printed off the text was too big and there needs to be more pages listed. The images ok but i could have some more original images so that i can make as much as possible of it to be my ideas.





Tuesday, 27 January 2009

Designing my own music magazine cover and double page spread.

I have now started to design my own music magazine cover. I will draw out a few ideas first before i think of a final decision and i will start taking many photos so i have plenty to choose from when i pick the final design. So far i do have a brief idea what i would like to do but i will compare it to other ideas first.



My Ideas.
The genre that i have decided to use for my magazine cover is Dance/RnB. Stars that would be apart of this genre would be Eric Prydz, Pacha (a popular night club), Faithless, Ciara, Rhianna, Chris Brown and Bass hunter.
The target audience for the magazine will be ages 16 - 21 for males and females. To target this audience i will use a variety of images of men and women and use musicians that appeal to them like the ones listed above.
The title i have decided to give my music magazine is 'Fuse' because it links to the idea of electricity which is what speakers need to play music outloud.
My idea for the the image was at first to take a photo of a young woman listeneing to music from her head phones dancing and i would represent the music beats with bright colours of paint thrown on a white wall but because this was difficult to do, i decided to represent the music with bright colours still but have them on the face of the young woman dancing which i think has still created a good effect.
The double page spread will be a interview with the young woman having an interview for being a new music artist in the music industry. I will have a large picture of her in the middle with the questions and answers around her. The questions will be about how she feels abou doing music and how good she thinks she may be, and also to make it more interesting have some personal questions, perhaps about her love life.
The contents page will have all the page numbers and whats on those pages along the left side with images relating to the inside on the right, i just want to keep the contents page simple because it's more about whas inside the magazine.

Tuesday, 13 January 2009

Q magazine


Here is another magazine cover were i will be analysing the Genre, Media Language, Representation and Ideology.


Genre

To find out more about the magazine i looked at other 'Q' magazines to find out what other music celebrities have been on the cover, there have been people like Kings of Lion, Madonna, U2, Coldplay, Kylie and so on. I thinks thisshows that the magazine is more based on the individual music stars who create there own genre rather than the magazine as a whole be based on one genre. This can be similar to other magazines in the way of who is on the cover as on the cover i am using it has Madonna but she could also be used on a cover such as 'Mixmag' because that appears to have the genre of dance which to some extent Madonna has used as an image. I think the title 'Q' reminds me of questions, it gives the idea that it questions the music industry. I don't think music magazine necessarily not represent other genres because as previously mentioned it appears to be a magazine which represents more than one genre. Also the idea of all the different genres does give variety within genre and time period as artists like Madonna have been around for years.



Media Language

The fonts used appear to be straight, clear fonts and the same font appears to be used over the whole of the cover, different colours have been used to seperate them up. The largest font of course is the name on the magazine but 'Madonna' has been enlarged to, so that it stands out. The main colours used are red and white, most texts are in white to stand out against the dark background of Madonna in a black boxing robe.
The main photo is the photo of Madonna wearing a black boxing robe and a dark silver glove. There is also an image of 'women in music' free 70 page special. Although there is a large photo of Madonna other stars are listed along the left side; Michael Stipe, Russel Brand, Kasier Chiefs, Girls Aloud, Mighty Boosh, Ian Brown and Little Britain which have been interviewed. There is no white space on the cover which shows the editors have used as music space as possible but i have noticed that the background behind Madonna is black which blends into her costume which prevents the idea of white space, which shows as a whole black is the main colour. When i look at the magazine i can't help but look at Madonna as her eyes always appear to be looking my way.





The title is simple and reminds me of the idea of a questionnaire. The idea of the title is to show the audience what the magazine is about but i think if it wasn't for the images of singers/bands as in this case Madonna, which does question whether its the images selling the magazine rather than the title.


The facial expression on Madonna's face looks very relaxed but also has a look of sexiness, her hair is curly but covered up by the hood of a boxing robe, this image has been used to show that they have got an interview from her inside the magazine. I think it makes Madonna look very serous and shows that she is a sensible person. The second image of 'women in music' magazine cover that the audience recieve inside has a woman on the front in a very unusual pose, when i first looked at it i thought it was about gym exercises but when you look closer she is infact in a nice blue dress, looks stylish and has a plug stating that it is a music magazine feature.

Representation

On the cover of this magazine it does appear to represent women mainly through image but to represent men, it has been written in text what bands will be featured in side, which of some have men in. I don't think it's a question of who is not represented on this magazine because i think that this magazine has an all around genre of music represented and also as well i representing music stars, it has some popular television stars mentioned for example Russel Brand and Mighty Boosh. I think it's hard to say basing it on this cover that there is any sexul prientation/attraction because only women have been shown through image, no men. Also race is not an issue only one race seems clear on this particular cover of white people.



Ideology

Although this magazine appears to represent more than one genre, i think the target audience are people who like music such as Indie, Rock, Dance and Punk but are in between the ages 18 - 25 due to new younger stars that appeal to them such as Girls Aloud but on the other hadn may appeal to people at the age of 40 because of some of the stars in the magazine which were around when they were younger as in this case Madonna, who also appeals for the younger people aswell due to new styles she experiements.

Tuesday, 16 December 2008

Classic Fm

The next magazine i will be analysing is Classic FM.

Once again i will be looking at Genre, Media Language, Representation, Ideology and Institution.

Genre
The text generally covers a more traditional background of music but has used a more modern celebrity on the cover - Myleene Klass. It does represent the radio station classic FM which is where the target audience can listen to the music. The genre of classical music has been represented by Myleene Klass as he does play musical instruments such as piano and violin, also the image of the CD cover represents the genre because of the piano, which is classes as a classical musical instrument. It does not however represent genres such as Punk Rock, RnB or Country/Western.

Media Language

The main font used is quite large so that it is easy to read and it is quite a thin, normal font, it doesn't have big bold curves or bulky straight sides, also the 'F' for FM is in red which makes it stand out that little bit more. Overall the same font is used all over the cover but in different sizes and colours. The main colours used are white and red, i think white symbolises purity and peace and the red represents love, it could represent hate but i think with genre of music it would not match.
The main photo used is a picture of Myleene Klass and there are others of Kate Royal and 'Fiddler on the surf'. There are also other images of a cd cover which has a piano on the front and a music guide. All the styles of photos are classical, for example Myleene Klass is a well known classical instrument player. There is a mix of gender due to the stars used both men and women are represented. The photo of Myleene Klass is the largest image and is centre of attention, it is set more to the right and all the other images of the others stars and musci cd cover are spaced around that main image.
There is a lot of white space but that is not because things have been missed out, it's what is intended to be the background but as a whole tha mian colours used are red and white. The images and text relate it each other because the text is about the classical genre and the images relate to that.


The idea of this title is to show the audience what the magazine and show what it is about. In the world as a whole it does refer to the radio station 'classic fm', this automatically lets the audience know what the magazine will have inside.

The facial expressions on the people are happy smiles, Myleene Klass' picture stands out the most because it is the main image, her hair is curly and natural looking, her attitude seems cheerful due to her smile. The 'fiddler on the surf' is a very posed photo next to a surf with a serious attitude and Kate Royalis also a posed photo, she looks like she is trying to get the audience's attention.
Representation

In these photographs the idea of classical music is being represented, i think perhaps there could be another image of maybe church singers which is a more clear representation on classical music. I think the cover does represent the idea of both men and women being able to buy this magzine, it's targeted at both genders. When you listen to classical music the words don't tend to relate to sexual attractions therefor the images don't represent any sexual attraction. The representation of race is not clear because only white skinned people are on the cover, although Myleen Klass is slightly tanned his doesn't necessarily show that people with a darker skin tone are represented.
Ideology

This magzine cover will interest those who like classical music and perhaps the radio station 'classic fm'. I think the values that it supports are peace, happiness and classic music instruments for example piano, violin and the flute. But on the otherhand i think it challenges most of other magzine genres because more modern music is popular so the magazine needs to keep it's classic theme and not turn the classical music genre into something else.

Institution

Due to the magazine being called 'classic fm' after the radio station i think the people who designed it are related to the radio station and are fans themselves of classic music otherwise they wouldn't know how to lay the cover out to appeal to the audience. The magazine makes money by appealing to their target audience so that they want to buy it and also influences 'new comers' who may see the magazine and think it looks good to read through. The interests of the reader are extremely important because if the magzine contents start to talk about another genreof music such as punk rock it won't apppeal to them and has nothing to do with the cover and their interests which is why people buy maazines because it's in their interest to read about what they like. The only slight change that is taking place in this media is that more modern celebrities are being represented but they still stick to the genre of classical music, these change are taking place because new classic singers or music instruments players are entering the music biz.

Tuesday, 9 December 2008

Metal Hammer

The key concepts that i will be analysing are the Genre (What kind of text is it?, What other things is it like?), Media Language (How is it constructed? What elements have been chosen? How are they arranged?), Representation (What does it say about the world?), Ideology (In who interest?), Audience (Who is it for? How can you tell?) and Institution (Who made it?, How can you tell?).

The first magazine i am going to analyse is Metal Hammer.


Genre

This text covers both traditional and contemporary metal bands, hardcore, Gothic rock and punk. Some similar magazines are Kerrang, Total Guitar and Meltdown. The genres of music that are represented are mainly Gothic rock and Heavy Metal due to the idea of the colours dark grey and red, the grey to represent metal and red to represent blood. Musical genres such as Pop, RnB, Dance, Classical or Jazz are not represented, you can see this due to colours, pictures and conventions on the magazine.



Media Language

There are seven elements to the media language which are Fonts, Size, colours, Photos, Styles, Stars and Gender. The font used is quite a bold, strong font which represents the idea of 'Metal' Hammer but in the title the word 'metal' is not the same font as the rest of the title it looks like a stamp print effect which is on a slant. For the text that reads 'Iron Maiden, these colours don't run' it is a similar font to the title but it looks almost like it's trying to look more of a curvier font but because of the idea of 'Metal' it can't because iron is seen as hard to bend.

The title of course is the largest text so that it stands out to the audience of what the magazine is called other fonts such as the Plug along the top 'Free DVD and CD!' and 'Iron Maiden, these colours don't run' are in a slightly smaller font but not dramatically different front the title, they are still easy to read and notice.

There appears to be only red, yellow, grey and black colours used.The grey and the black are dark colours so this represents the darkness and Gothicness of the magazine. I think the idea of the yellow font is to make particular words stands out such as 'Free' and the plug on the left side. Finally the idea of the red font i think is to represented blood which is seen as Gothic, red can represent other types of feelings such as love but i think in this case of the idea of it being Gothic it represents blood.

The photo on the cover appears to be a skull wearing an army hat, with two guns in front of it, also behind this skull there are what looks like bullet holes where the guns may have been aim at. I think the style of the photo comes across quite scary and threatening but also Gothic as it is a skull which relates to death.

There are no Stars used on the cover so this does show that it is not clear what Bands or Singers will appear inside of the magazine and due to there begin no Stars no genders are used so it doesn't show who would buy this but maybe the idea of there being no genders being shown is to show it doesn't matter whether you are male or female you can get this magazine.

The Title is along the top of the magazine but there is the plug 'Free DVD and CD' above it and the other text 'Iron Maiden, these colours don't run' is along the bottom of the magazine and the picture of the skull with guns is in the middle, centre of attention.

On the cover there is no white space, the picture and background cover the whole page and has text on top. The colours as a whole are used to create darkness which is mainly the grey and black shades. When i first looked at the cover the word 'Hammer' stood out to me the most, i think this is because of the large font and the colour. But then after a while i started to notice the picture more because it's unusual to me. The images and text relate to each other because of the word 'metal' in the title because the guns will be metal and metal is strong and the picture used is a strong effective image.


The idea of the title is to refer to music but think in this case it relates to genres rather than music such as Punk, Gothic Rock and Hardcore. All the genres are related to the title and so is the image of an actual metal hammer tool.



I think that this chosen image comes across with angry feelings, looks like a strong character especially with the guns in front of it, they create the idea of army soldiers who are people who represent our country and to protect which is maybe what the image it trying to portray. This represents the world as a whole to be a protective maybe violent place perhaps the people who buy the magazine feel this way about the world.

Representation

I don't think that overall the magazine represents either men or women but does show that either men or women can purchase the magazine, it doesn't make it clear whats it's target gender is. Due to there being no images of men or women it is hard to show whether there is sexual attraction/orientation and also doesn't show anything about the race of people,although the image is white it doesn't necessarily mean that it's more towards white skinned people.

Ideology

The people that will be interested in this magazine are either males or females who have a particlur interest in music in genres such as Gothic Rock, Punk and Hardcore. It appears to support violence as a whole the guns and army skull represent this and i think that it challenges the idea of protection, happiness and strength.

Institution

I think the person who made this has obviously got an interest in Gothic Rock music otherwise they wouldn't have known how to law out the convetions to look like that style of magazine. The media text makes it money by strongly representing it's target audience so that they want to buy it. The importance of the readers interest is important because if it doesn't appeal to them then they won't want to buy it, which would make the magazine not a very good success. I think that it's views are very independant in the way they are controversal by representing the idea of death, war and soldiers in music. When i looked at other Metal Hammer they had started to have more images of people on there and i think this is to show what bands and music interests the magazine it for.