In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I used developed and challenged different forms and conventions in order to reach my aim of relating my magazine to other already existing music magazines. To do this, I mainly focused my magazine around the conventions portrayed in music magazines such as VIBEand Rolling Stone. I usedthe specific conventions of these magazines whichinclude the style layouts, fonts and alignments of text. I hadto also research into other Hip-Hop and R&B magazines and found similarities in the way in which they are presented to their audience. I took some of those conventions and made them into my own to make my magazine appeal to my target audience and give my magazine that professional look. One of the main conventions that I discovered with most magazines in general, is the use of a bold, attention-grabbing masthead. I tried to follow this convention using Adobe Photoshop but soon realised that bold, unique fonts were limited, and therefore downloaded a specific font from Dafont.com. I chose the akka font and felt that it was most suitable due to its unique style in its appearance of radio disks.My aim was for the style to instantly notify the audience that my magazine has a connection with music. I then struggled with the alignment of my title due to its length and decided to break it into two and line it in a particular way. This took away a plain boring look and gave it a distinct, creative look.
Originally
Changed
Final
Another convention I came across through research, was the selling line of music magazines. Normally a selling line would include the focus of the magazine and a brief explanation of what the magazine has to offer like phrases such as, Your number one magazine. However I came across the fact that most music magazines selling lines either consist of the names of different artists to show the genre the magazine will focus on or different events offers, the magazine will give to fans. I challenged the convention of different artist being stated and tookthe mentioning of events as my selling line as I realised it is not used much, this would put my magazine at an advantage as it has a unqiue selling line. My selling line reads, & The Winners Are? Hip-Hop Awards 2012 not only does it state the genre of my magazine, but it also advertises an event which would make the reader want to know what the awards were and who won them.
In order to give my audience an insight to what my magazine features, I used bold, eyecatching cover lines; another convention used in magazines. Once again I felt that the Photoshop fonts were not satisfactory enough, so I downloaded the Bebas Neuefont. I wanted the font to be simple and bold, to make it easy for the audience to read and to not make the magazine look busy and all of over the place, like it would have if I have used stylish fonts. I used Bebas Neue for all of my coverlines except for the name of the artist who is my magazine image. I aligned my cover lines on both the left and right side of the front cover and left the same amount of space between the edge of the paper to the begining of the words vertically by inserting guides to keep everything in line. For the name of my artist, I downloaded the Pincoya Black font as it was very bold and had a distint style to it which will definetly catch the readers eye. It is the only cover line which is not in line with the other and slightly runs across my artist. It is also the second biggest font of the whole magazine front cover after my masthead.
Another convention is the use of a barcode, price and date. Although most magazines place the price on top, and date underneath the barcode which is usually placed at the bottom of any corner, I followed the convention and placed my barcode at the bottom right corner and the price on top, but put the date next to it. Dates are a usually small font, along with the price; however I challenged this convention and made the date font bigger than average. I did this, as I noticed there was a gap in my cover and figured it would not be appropriate to place a cover line there.Also, I have experienced trying to find the date of a magazine and struggling to, due to its small font; this will benefit my readers as they can easily see when my magazine was issued.
Certain amount of space between the edge of paper to box Placed on the bottom right
One other convention of a music magazine is the main image on the cover. The photograph always consist of one person only (unless the artists are a group), and tends to be from at least a close up, to a medium long shot only. The most common used is the Medium Close Upand Mid Shot, so I used this convention also. This was to show my artist at the perfect length of not being too close or too far.
These are the alternative photos I was going to use for the main image
Just like my front page, my contents page also used, developed and challenged conventions found in existing magazines. Contents pages consist of sharp, neat, boxes that have different sub-headings, showing what the magazine has to offer. It is the first thing the reader looks at,
once the front page had caught their attention, so it was very important that I made it live up to the expectations that the front cover brought. I did this through the use of bold writing and more images which illustrated other issues the magazine will discuss and more details of the cover lines on the front page. I also included a line of categories down the right side and then placed the images on the left side. I challenged the conventions as usually the contents page doesnt not necessary match the front cover; however I wanted to keep my theme of Red, Black and White, in order to have some sense of continuity. I used guides in order to help me keep the boxes aligned and in proportion with one another, to give it that professional, neat look.
Again I decided to keep to my theme of Red, Black and White for my double page spread also to keep the continuity. I split the page into two, one side containing the image with a quote written across, the other side with the interview which was divided into two columns plus the introduction paragraph. This gives a professional look and makes it easier for the reader to read. I made the quote big and bold to catch the readers eye. This is a convention often used as the audience can be put off with the small font so adding a big quote will allow them to have a little experience of what the interview will be about.
How will your media product represent particular socials groups? My music magazine has atarget audience of teenagers. It is for both genders but will most probably appeal to males as they are more likely to be attracted to Hip-Hop than females, however it could be argued that it is balanced out as it is also a R&B magazine and females tend to like that genre more than males. Many teenagers are represented badly in the media, in todays society. My magazine includes many young artists who has had trouble growing up and who make something of themselves through music. I want the representations in my magazine to be positive about young people for a change. My magazine will represent young people as being passionate, hard-working and yearning to be successful in music. I will portray this view through different interviews and reviews with the artists personally throughout the magazine. I especially made sure that the person in the main image was wearing a hoodie, with a black jacket. Normally a person wearing that would have a bad representation but to change things around, I made sure that he is represented in a good way despite what hes wearing, to reverse stereotypes. It also fits well with the genre as it is the type of clothes that not only Hip-Hop and R&B artists wear, but what the target audience are most likely to wear too. The graffiti behind the boy is another stereo-type of teenagers but I wanted my magazine to illustrate it as a type of art.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Going back to the publishing house case study I did in the planning and research stage of my coursework, I chose Cond Nast publications. Once again I am choosing them as, I believe that Cond Nast would publish and distribute my magazine for various reasons. Firstly theirmagazines focus on a wide range of topics, including travel, food, home, culture, and other interests, with fashion the larger portion of the company's focus. They also publish magazine titles such as Vogue, Glamour, GQ and Easy Living. Secondly, due to Cond Nast Digital not having a market of music, publishing my magazine will allow them to expand their business. They will then have a wider target audience and more income. Already they are involved in fashion and as my genre of magazine is R&B and Hip-Hop, fashion is has a very big link towards that and not only would it benefit them, it could also benefit me as I can then expand my genre of magazine.
Who would be the audience for your media product? I decided on the age group of 16 25. It is targeted for both a British and American audience. Hip-Hop and R&B is originated from the US but recently, many British artists are becoming Hip-Hop and R&B artists due to its global spread. I decided on a young target audience as they are the main people who listen to such music due to the upbeat tempos and the age of the artists themselves. However some of the events featured in my magazine will appeal to an older audience as my magazine includes events such as awards and concerts to which do not have an age limit.
Ethically, it could argued that R&B and Hip-Hop are mostly targeted to Black British/African Americans, however due to the youth age group, it is more diverse nowadays and many Caucasian people listen to R&B and Hip-Hop now than before; therefore I do not have a specific ethnic group. It is aimed for all R&B/Hip-Hop fans. How did you attract/address your audience? One of the ways I attracted and addressed my target audience was through collecting my audience research and taking on board their preferences. My black and red theme attracted my audience as it was the majority vote in terms of colour scheme, it also appeals to both genders equally. Many magazines tend to have plain black background with bold colourful writing however I felt that my red background will stand out from the rest and attract my audience. Also my main image of the boy with the hooded jacket and backpack could relate to my audience as they will instantly see the similarity between them due to how he is presented. It also fits well with the genre as it is the type of clothes that not only Hip-Hop and R&B artists wear, but what the target audience is most likely to wear too.
Another way I attracted my audience was my use of selling/cover lines. I not only included different events associated with my magazine, but also other well-known artists. This expands my audience even more as the audience may not particularly be interested in my genre of R&B and Hip-Hop but if they were to see the name of an artist that they like, they are most likely to buy the magazine because of the artist and that could probably lead them into finding out more about my genre and possibly even liking it. Also my cover line Win a free ticket to see Drake will also attract the audience as Drake is one of the main Hip-Hop artists out right now and recently sold out the O2 Arena, two days in a row in his recent concert, Club Paradise. This would lure my audience to wanting to buy the magazine to get a free ticket.
My use of different fonts also helped me attract my audience as I had to make sure that the fonts werent all the same that would give it a plain look, and I had to make sure that they werent all different that would make it look too busy. I decided to make all my cover lines the plain BebasNeue font and the masthead akka. I believe my masthead is very bold and unique which definitely attracts the audience as my layout gives it its own distinct look.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have leant a lot of things about technologies from the process of constructing my magazine. I took my pictures from a Nikon d3000 which I already knew how to use so I didnt struggle much with that. However the main thing I learnt was how to use Adobe Photoshop. I had not used Photoshop often before the process of constructing my magazine, so my knowledge was very limited. However the preliminary task helped me a lot as I helped me get used to all the tools and small basic knowledge into making a magazine.
I learnt how to cut around an image to get rid of the background by using the Magnetic Lasso Tool. My main image had a very busy background so I found it hard to add my text over it so using the magnetic lasso tool allowed me to neatly curve around my image and get rid of the background.I also learned that making separate layers allowed me to easily edit them after and make changes when necessary.
In order to still make my simple fonts stand out, I learned how to add drop shaddows and effects to it. Photoshop also easily helped me tranfer my files into the JPEG format as I found uploading my work onto my blog on Blogger.com difficult as it only accepts JEPG files; this was very useful to me.
Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?
Since my preliminary task I feel as though I have learnt a lot of knowledge and skills from it to my final product. My Photoshop skills have improved drastically, as well as my knowledge on the conventions that music magazine must have. In my preliminary contents page, I lacked sense in where my images and text should be placed and how it should have been organized. In my preliminary front cover my choice of font and colour were poor but I leaned now what colours should go with what, in order for them to be visible and appropriate. I also learned that too many effects could make the magazine look cheap and tacky, as in my main image I edited the photo and added an effect to it. I learned when effects are appropriate and when they are not. This helped me improve the quality of my magazine and gave it a more professional look. I also had to learn how to work on an A3 canvas as I had to make double page spread and learn how to take up the space and the conventions of that as I did not make a double page spread for my preliminary task. I am much more confident in Photoshop skills than I was when I was making my preliminary and it shows in my work as a lot more concentration was put into little things, like fonts which I had to download, shadows on texts and images, the right colors to go together, as well as where to place certain things in order to use the right conventions of a music magazine.
