The Brief
For my media coursework I had to create a front cover for a music magazine and also a contents page and a double page spread. All my images had to be original photographs which I took and I had to make my products from scratch. I used Adobe Photoshop for my front cover and my contents page and I also used Photoshop to edit my two picture’s on my double page spread. I used Microsoft Publisher to create my double page spread as it was easier to do than doing it on Photoshop. I also did three ICT drafts, I did a draft for my front cover, contents page and my double page spread, I did these drafts on Microsoft Publisher just so I could see where I could put certain things such as where I could put my cover lines on my front cover. I have finished all my planning, research and creating and I can now evaluate all of my work.
I started off by researching three different front covers of music magazine's to get idea's of how I could create a really good front cover I also looked at three different contents page's to get an idea of how I could do my own contents page, I looked at Q magazine and two different NME Magazine contents page's. I also researched double page spreads and evaluated three of them, this helped me create my own products as I got plenty of idea's from them and I could also see what I think worked well and what didn't work or fit in with my drafts and planning. I did a textual analysis of everything from the three front covers to the three double page spread's.
I have used the main conventions that music magazines use such as head masts, cover lines, images, the date, bar codes etc. I decided that my target audience for my music magazine would be young adults from the age of 16 to above. Also my genre for my magazine is Pop, I did a draft of how I wanted my front cover to look and I needed an image of a young girl looking like a new pop star. I chose my model to wear a black sequin dress so that when I took the photograph the sequins would sparkle and it would work well for my front cover. I edited my image on Photoshop to make my image look much more brighter to make my front cover appeal to readers. The image is the most important part of the front cover as if the image doesn't look good it's not very likely that it will catch people's attention and make much money. My image also shows my target audience as my artist is a young adult and you can tell this from my photograph. My front cover challenges forms of conventions of real media products as my front cover has a main image of the artist that is most focussed in the magazine. Also I have included mastheads which is the initials of the name of my magazine and I have also included what the initials stand for so that the readers know what my magazine is actually called. I chose to use the colour red for my masthead as the colour red stands out which will make my reader realise what my music magazine is called. I also have the dateline at the top right hand side of the page so the reader knows when the magazine came out. I also put a barcode on my front cover, I chose to place my bar code at the bottom of the page as it is not very important to the reader. I also included the price at the bottom of the page and I put it in a blue colour so that readers can clearly see how much my magazine costs. My colour scheme consists of red, yellow and blue, I chose these colours as they work well together and they also stand out which will catch reader's attention. I have realised that cover lines are one of the most important things on a front cover as this tells the reader some of the things that are included in the magazine. If the cover lines are not very interesting it will not appeal to people and they would not buy my magazine. The colour scheme that I used for my cover lines are red writing with a yellow glow around it, I think this worked well as the text stands out to appeal to readers and the colours work well together.
On my contents page, I decided to use a full image of a speaker as I think it works well and the image I took is very bright and stands out and it also relates to music. I noticed on other contents pages that a lot of them include a "subscribe today and save money" I decided to include this on my contents page as this will appeal to reader's and it will also make profit for my magazine. I included Regulars and Features on my contents page. The colour scheme for my contents page is blue, red and white. These colours work well together as my background image is quite dark and the colours I chose stand out. I included Regulars so that reader's know what is in every issue of my magazine such as fan pages and music reviews. I also included Features and listed some pages of what is included in my magazine. The main story is "Jess Hunt Talks Exclusively" so I decided to put this at the top of my list of page's as this is the main focus of my magazine.
My double page spread consists of two medium shot images of my main artist with a textual story. My head mast continues on to the right hand side of the page as well as the left hand side of the page. I decided to make my main artist's name italic as it stands out to the reader and I also put the name of my music magazine in the colour red as on my front cover the name of my music magazine is red. On my double page spread I decided that my colour scheme would consist of red, black and blue. I wanted to keep the colour scheme minimal as my photograph is colourful. I kept my textual story on the left hand side of the page as I didn't want it to go on to my photograph. I have also used a small photo of my artist to break the text up so it doesn't look so long. I have also used a line from my story to highlight in a circular box which also breaks up my story.The two main programs I used were Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher. I used Adobe Photoshop to create my front cover and my contents page, this was so I could edit my pictures to make them look the best they could. For my double page spread, I used Photoshop to edit my two pictures on my double page and I used Microsoft Publisher to produce my textual story as it was easier to do on publisher because I am more used to Publisher than Photoshop and also Photoshop is more to do with editing photos than writing a textual story. All my images used were taken on a digital camera which were then edited on Photoshop.
The main way which my music products represents social groups is by the mis-en scene which is the main image of a young girl. From my image you can tell that my main social group is of a younger generation. My model was dressed in a party like black sequinned dress which is very fashionable to younger generations and also the way my model is dress helps to show the type of social group I am trying to target.
The type of institution which may distribute my music products is IPC (international publishing company) . IPC are one of the United Kingdom's leading consumer and magazine and digital publishers which sells over 350 million copies of portfolios a year. The main reason I think that IPC would fit best for my products is because IPC also distribute NME magazine which is a very popular and well known music magazine. IPC have made NME one of the most popular music magazine's in the United Kingdom which makes it easy to buy because they are sold in most newsagents and shops which will make my product easily available.
The target audience for my music products are young adults, mainly females as pop magazines are mainly bought by females as a lot of pop artists are females such as Ke$ha, Rihanna and Lady Gaga and many more. I would say that the range age for my music products is from 16-25 as I think this age range would enjoy my magazine as the features in my magazine are focussed for younger generations. The main people and audience would be students as a lot of students have an interest in music and may be influenced by artists.First of all I wanted to make it clear that I wanted to attract a younger generation by using a young female model, I looked at other pop music magazines and they mostly featured female models. I also attracted my audience by my colour scheme, I used bright colours as younger generations like bright colours instead of having dull and boring colours such a black/grey.
From the process of constructing my product I have learnt that technologies are a big part in creating a good product because if you do not know how to work a program properly such as Photoshop, images and the way the product looks may not look very good if you cannot use the program properly. I had never used Photoshop before creating my music magazine, I found it very difficult to start with but after a while I played about with some of the bottoms and I feel I have a good understanding of how to work Photoshop quite well. Also it would not be possible to create a good product without the internet, as I did most of my research online and without the internet it would not have been possible to research as much as I did. I also used a digital camera, without a camera my image would not have been created. Before taking a photograph you need to know what type of shot you want and how you want it to look. Whilst creating my products I have learnt that technologies are very important when constructing a music product as it is very technical.
The main things I have learnt is that you always need to look back at your drafts to see how you are going to create your products and you also need to keep thinking about your target audience and how I can get my products to appeal to my target audience. Also taking time in doing research and planning is very important as you can look back and refer to how you was going to create your products.Overall I have found creating my music products very enjoyable and it is something I would like to do again. I also found it quite stressful as I did not have very good time management and I felt rushed near the end of the dead line. If I was to do this again, I would make a plan of what I needed to finish by a certain time so I wasn't rushing my work. I would say that the best product I have produced is my front cover, I spent a lot of time and effort trying to improve my front cover and I think my image works really well and I love the brightness of it.
