AS Media Studies Foundation Portfolio 2011: March 2012

First of all I will include images of my front cover, contents page and double page spread against images of separate front covers, contents pages and double page spreads from other magazines to compare:

My music magazine front cover against one from 'KERRANG!'

My magazine contents page against a contents page from 'NME'

My music magazine double page spread against a double page spread from 'KERRANG!'

The front cover of my music magazine follows a lot of the usual conventions of a traditional music magazine such as on my front cover I have included; Masthead, Barcode, Date, Issue, Main coverlines, coverlines and a skyline. I have included these features on my music magazines front cover because these are essential to give information to the buyers of my magazine about which magazine it is and who is featured in the magazine. The Masthead shows the audience which magazine, it is placed at the top of the magazine in large letters so that when it is stacked on a shelf in a shop it can be noticed and picked up by the buyers of the magazine. The barcode is placed on the bottom right hand side of the magazine so it can be scanned and registered as it is purchased, both the date and issue are placed above my masthead so the buyer can track which issue the magazine is. The main coverline and the coverlines show the reader of the magazine who is being featured in the magazine so that they can read about the main stories inside the magazine, the skyline is at the very top of the magazine, above the masthead, date and time and reveals the smaller features included in the magazine.

Some conventions that are traditional on the front covers of music magazines, such as; a sell line, price, teasing contents or a splash/puff weren’t included on my front cover of my music magazine. On my magazine I haven’t included a sell line on my music magazine as it would have been difficult to place on the cover without getting in the way or the image and the magazine would be sold issued weekly so the magazine would criteria to a target audience without having to appeal with a sell line. Also, because the magazine is so frequent the audience wouldn’t need reminding of the price as they would buy it regularly. teasing contents or splash’s weren’t included on my front cover because the contents page will have enough information on it for the reader to know what features are inside the issue of the magazine and by including any graphics on to the magazine it could ruin the effect of having a serious rock magazine and instead make it look too much like a pop magazine.

My music magazine contents page follows a lot of the usual conventions found in music magazines such as; several images, a features section, numbers (without the word page) to indicate the pages the features are found on and an editor’s letter. These conventions, such as the several images, a features section and the page numbers are essential on a contents page as they give lots of information to the reader and without them the reader would have to search the entire magazine to find the features they are looking for. The editor’s letter is not essential on a contents page as it doesn’t give information about the issue of the magazine to the reader but it does make the magazine seem more personal so that when the audience reads the letter they feel connected to the magazine more closely and allow them to know how the magazine is progressing.

Some conventions that are traditional on contents pages are not featured on my music magazines contents page, such as; a news section, reviews section, as they wouldn’t be featured in the magazine, I decided not to add them because I believe that my magazine needs to come across as only featuring the latest information on rock music and not distract the audience from this by adding news which they could read anywhere else, the magazine needed to be all about the rock music. The reviews section was not included as reviews can be perceived as other people’s opinions on the music and my magazine is about giving the information about new and old rock music but not being biased or giving opinions.

My music magazine Double page spread I believe holds all the usual conventions of a traditional double page spread in a music magazine. My magazine’s double page spread includes; a large headline, a large main image, an introductory paragraph, photo credit and a Byline, a drop cap and a pull quote. All these conventions I believe are essential to a successful music magazine’s double page spread because without them the page doesn’t look appealing to read and the audience need to know that this page is special and the main story in the magazine. The large headline is featured on the top right side of the page because when the reader turns to the page, reading left to right, the first thing they will see is the headline in large letters and it will jump out to them. The large main image is actually the background for my double spread and it allows the audience to engage with the image more by reading the text as they view the image. The introductory paragraph is essential because the reader will be able to see what the feature is about and get a hint of what it will include. The photo credit and Byline are positioned underneath the band name on the left hand side, these are important as even though the reader might not be too interested in who took the images or asked the questions credit needs to given and they are representing the magazine. Finally the use of the drop cap and pull quote are used to draw the readers attention into reading the feature and give a teaser of what might be said.

My magazine is not your every day magazine that is mainstream within the majority of people within it's audience range (15 - 30) as it does not cover other Genres such as Hip Hop and R&B but it only covers Rock and Roll through the ages. It also isn't traditionally conventional within the typical rock magazine as they usually only criteria to one section of rock, whereas my magazine will aim to cover different sections of rock ( Heavy metal, punk, indie, grunge, rock and roll, classic rock) and give an accurate account of old school to modern rock. The gender isn't specific for my magazine as both females and males are interested in rock music so I have made sure there are no gender specification features in my magazine. Because my magazine is specified towards fans of current and previous rock bands I have mentioned artists who would appeal to the target audience, for example Frank Turner (Current) and Ozzy Osbourne (past/current) many rock fans, especially those who are fans of past rock bands, like to see that rock music hasn't become pop or gone stale, so having an impressive and intimidating band as the main cover image it reminds the audience that rock music is still alive and vibrant. The colour scheme I have chosen (black, white & red) show the dangerous it fits well with the target audience as rock music is classically shown as being dangerous but also rock has always stood out and these colours clash in a good way to make them stand out.

An appropriate publishing company for my music magazine is 'Time Inc'. This is because it is an extremely successful publishing company, publishing music magazines such as ‘PEOPLE’ magazine. Because of it's massive success in publishing magazines it is an obvious choice as i know that it would get well published but also because magazines they publish such as 'PEOPLE' and 'GOLF magazine' aren't within the same genre of magazine as mine I can guarantee no threat to come to their audiences for previous magazines. In the first six months of 2004 'PEOPLE' magazine was ranked number 3 in the 'Top 100 ABC Magazines', having a total of 2.281.395 subscriptions and being paid a total of 3.730.287, which can show that 'Time Inc' is a highly successful publishing company and I could feel secure in trusting that this company could publish my magazine well. I considered using magazine publishers such as 'Bauer Media' seeing as the company publishes magazines such as 'KERRANG!' which has had a massive success but then I concluded that my music magazine and 'KERRANG!' are both within the same genre and the company would not want to compete the magazines against each other as it would effect their profits on one magazine.

The target demographic audience for my music magazine is anyone (male & female) between the ages of 15 to 30 they could belong to any social class as the upper classes could idolise the grungy and rustic rock effect as it would be different from what they are used to and the lower social classes will relate to the magazine as it hasn’t been made to look glamorous the target S.E.G is from band E to C1 as this takes up the majority of society and my magazine wouldn’t appeal to the extremely rich and glamorous. The target psychographic audience for my music magazine are the people who want to be a part of something exciting and be part of a tight group of what can sometimes be described as social outcasts as they don’t follow the usual trends of society. In Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ pyramid the people in the ‘social’ or ‘esteem’ level will be most attracted towards my magazine as they will be the part of a percentage of people willing to buy this magazine and be a part of a group and gain the respect and admiration of other followers of the magazine or rock music. Also, within the value life style (VALS) my magazine would appeal to the more inner-directed groups as they would believe that their choice of music is personal to them and that since rock music isn’t the most popular genre of music out at the minute the followers would feel they are being different and unique by supporting the underdog of the music genre. Since the beginning of the process of making my music magazine I have always wanted this to be the target audience for my music magazine as I feel appealing to this specific target audience would be the most profitable as they would feel more loyal to a singular magazine and perhaps subscribe more as they would connect more to it.

After I created the final products of my music magazine I created a survey and asked ten students what they thought of it. I asked questions such as what genre of rock they though the magazine was, what they would pay for the magazine, how often would they purchase the magazine and if they had any thoughts on whether I need to improve of any areas.

100% of students believe my magazine was within the rock genre. This is unsurprising as I have made sure that my magazine is very clearly a rock magazine with the typography and colour schemes and also by ensuring the grungy theme.

50% would pay £3.00, 50% would pay £2.00. This may be because of audience's different taste, as I tried to ask an equal amount of male and female audiences with different music tastes.

80% would purchase the magazine fortnightly, 10% would purchase it monthly and 10% would purchase it weekly. Again I believe this percentage split between monthly, fortnightly and weekly is due to the different music tastes of the students I questioned.

Because my magazine is targeted towards audience within the E to C1 band I have made my magazine seem affordable, as 100% of the audience wanted to pay under 4.00 for the magazine and 50% would pay £2.00 so the magazine doesn’t seem to expensive that the audience would stay away. My demographic audience consists of anyone (male & female) between the ages of 15 to 30 they could belong to any social class but because the psychographic is more specific to the underdogs of society who would feel that their music taste is important and personal to them I have to consider what is likely to be important to them. I believe that the most important thing to this audience, concerning music magazines, is being reminded that buy purchasing the magazine they get value for their money but also that they are, by purchasing the magazine, becoming a part of a group of people who care and appreciate their music and not just following trends but researching and idolising music and music icons from generations ago. I haven’t included any special others or plugs in my magazine because I didn’t want my magazine to have to appeal to audiences by giving away free gimmicks or items in order to pull audiences into wanting to purchase the magazine, the people who appreciate the magazine for the contents should purchase the magazine.

I have learnt to use a lot of technologies from the process of constructing my product. When I began creating my magazine I was a novice, at best, at using the programme Photoshop and through the process of creating my music magazine I know feel that I am more adequate and feel better equipped when using the programme. From everything as simple as using the ‘quick selection’ tool properly in order to select only the relevant things needed in a photograph as sometimes when taking a photograph mistakes can be made and the picture maybe wider or include accidental objects on the outskirts of the image this tool allows the user to grab relevant sections of the photograph and leave the other sections. Another great tool I have become comfortable using is the ‘blur’ tool which allows me to alter a section of the image and makes it out of focus, blurring it and this can alter how the images depth of field is viewed. The transform tool has many sub sections which all transform and alter an image to create different effects. ‘Rotate’ allows you to rotate an object Adjust the rotate centre point, if desired, ‘Skew’ allows you to lean or bend an object in different ways, Useful for mapping something to a flat surface, or giving an item perspective. ‘Distort’ allows you to bend and push the item any way you want to. ‘Perspective’ gives an image that "it’s coming closer" or that "it’s going away" look. ‘Numeric’ allows you to set precise transform numbers, useful when you need something exactly this or that size, or rotated exactly a certain amount. ‘Rotate (180, 90 CW, 90CCW)’ allows you to instantly rotate an image 180 degrees, 90 degrees clockwise, or counter clockwise. ‘Flip Horizontal/Vertical’ flips an image. The ‘Character’ tool is used for font and layout related issues, this is an essential tool for designing the music magazine as I added a lot of font, such as the ‘masthead’ or ‘main coverline’ and without that the magazine wouldn’t be appealing to anyone. ‘Spot fix’ includes such sub-tools as ‘the Spot Healing Brush’ doesn’t require you to make a selection of a source area to use for the fix so you can get to work fixing the image straight away, to fix just the problem area and to leave as much of the original image intact around it. Red eye is the condition that occurs when a camera's flash reflects off the back of a person's eye. Most common in portraits and group photos, it's generally a problem when the subject is looking directly at the camera. Photoshop has a tool named ‘Colour Replacement tool’. This is effective on red eye as all you need to do is paint over the pupil manually and by lowering the opacity it will create the natural effect of not suffering from red eye. Another great tool I have learnt to use in Photoshop is ‘layer style’ A layer style is simply one or more layer effects and blending options applied to a layer. Layer effects are things like drop shadows, stroke, and colour overlays. Layer styles are easy to manipulate as you can turn off a layer style by clicking on the eye icon beside Effects so that you can see how the original layer looks without its layer style. Layer styles are very important in creating an attractive image as they allow you to manipulate the appearance of an image and allows you to do almost anything to colour change to altering the texture. Here are some images I have provided from my magazine which are the before and after shots through the process of using these techniques on Photoshop.

My front cover has used all of the above techniques, except the ‘red eye’ tools, and is a prime example of how different an image can be made to look.

Looking back on my preliminary task I feel that I have learnt, in the progression from it to my full and final product, a lot concerning different techniques with PhotoShop and also the perception of audience feedback. In my preliminary task I was a novice when it came to the understanding of media and the magazine business. Now I feel I at least understand the basics of designing a magazine and understand how to make it seem appealing to the target audience.

Here is my preliminary task (college magazine) and my music magazine, there are many differences. The music magazine has a better layout of coverlines and a much better and engaging photograph for the main image, also the use of vivid colour is much more powerful rather than the black and white of the college magazine, by having multiple images on my music magazine it excels the college magazine also by the way it seems like it has a lot more contents and much more appealing to the reader because it looks like the audience gets more value for money, the blunt and random placing of the left third text on the college magazine looks sloppy and unprofessional opposed to the music magazines carefully laid out features underneath the main coverline which is sectioned off from the rest in a red box, unlike the preliminary magazine cover which has everything moulded together and nothing stands out.