Evaluation
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and convention of real media products?
Front Cover
For my AS foundation portfolio production, I chose the point brief in order to fulfil this task I started by examining existing media texts of the same form. I used NME magazine to compare my front cover regarding the conventions and features of a magazine cover. I chose NME because it features a very similar music genre of indie rock. I also featured the similar colours, for example, red for the masthead, and yellow, black and red for the rest of the text. I deliberately wanted my photo on my front cover to be out of focus as that was an effect I wanted the front cover to possess, although the image is blurred, it is obvious to see that the photo features and guitarist with his head down near the guitar and a guitar. The NME magazine features a quote and so does mine and I did this because I think it is a good way to entice the reader and make them want to look inside. I have placed my masthead in the top left hand corner as this is a front cover convention however I decided to style mine completely different to NME. I decided on the name ‘dark temptation’ because the temptation is to read the magazine despite the fact the contents may sometimes be perhaps considered dark or cynical, and featuring bands that maybe sing and write dark and cynical lyrics. I have written ‘the Bicycats’ in capital letters similarly to the NME magazine writing ‘My Chemical Romance’ in capital letters. This has been done so it draws attention to the band that is being featured in the magazine and the band starring in the interview. We can tell that they are starring in the interview because the quote is directly above the band name like ‘my chemical romance’ is just below which immediately suggests that this is a quote from the interview. I have confirmed this by stating that it is an exclusive interview just below.
I have included the issue number as it is another magazine convention, and features on almost every magazine. I have also included the price and barcode in a clear and easy place to see, with the date and price in the top right hand corner and the barcode in the bottom right, where it is conventionally placed in most magazines.
Along the bottom of the NME magazine is a ‘plus’ box, which includes extra things and offers that could be included in the magazine, I decided to include one on my magazine as an extra convention and an extra feature to my magazine, to make it more interesting and unique to look at. However, to make mine different from the other several examples of NME magazine that I looked at I have included which bands are featuring on posters in my magazine, this will also help my target audience to estimate whether this is the magazine for them, as they will be able to instantly tell the indie rock bands that the magazine focuses around.
The tag line is featured on most issues and is what my magazine ‘believes in’ almost like a slogan for my magazine, which they would consider to be important. Mine is ‘It’s the year of the beast!’ because I think it gives high hopes for the year of the magazine being subscribed, it makes the audience understand that the magazine focuses on various different events that will eb happening throughout the year as well as other conventions so I almost wanted it to be slightly persuasive for people to want to buy the magazine more, almost like a selling point. So to make the connection clear I placed it underneath the title. The NME magazine does have a tag line, despite the fact that it is not featured on this magazine front cover example but I have researched it and it is ‘the future of music’ however it is generally placed in the top left corner of the front cover which differs from mine.
On many NME magazines front covers including this one, there is often a quote that the cover artist has said during the interview. This is almost a tease device for the audience giving them an out of context section of the interview making them want to read on and buy the magazine to read the rest of the interview. This is also a good way to intrigue people to buy the magazine as they may not like the artist that is featuring in the magazine but perhaps the quote could make them intrigued and force them to want to read on about it so I think it is definitely used as a selling point for magazines. On the NME front cover the pull quote is “it’s difficult to watch someone deteriorate” so we know that something is perhaps going wrong for the band or they may be speaking about someone or something on quite a personal level, which I think could definitely intrigue us. Although, I think perhaps this could be seen as slightly cynical and depressing and therefore may not make people want to read on, therefore I have taken a completely opposite approach with mine, I realised that the band members of my Band The Bicycats are male and female and so therefore I could use a pull quote about their love life to intrigue my audience, and I decided what better way to intrigue someone than by “were single pringles!” as not only does it suggest they will be talking about their current marital status but also perhaps relationships they have had in the past or their previous encounters with love and in my opinion, the public as often very nosey and that is something they may want to read about as it will perhaps be talking more about the artist’s personal life.
Contents Page
When I started to improve my contents page, I wanted to make sure that I had included all of the conventions, and so I used this example of an NME contents page as a template. Despite the fact, I completely changed the layout and where all the text is placed. I included my main front cover photograph so that there was a clear connection between that and the cover story and then page numbers to indicate where they are placed throughout the magazine. I then did the same on the other stories and photographs to create a consistent style. I also kept the same colours as included on the front cover to keep a consistent theme throughout the magazine so you can clearly see that they are from the same magazine. NME have taken a different approach to this, they have included colours on the majority of their front covers, despite all the writing being in black and white, the photographs still include colour which is quite a good unique technique I think. I chose to do the reverse, and used a black background with white writing, but I still wanted to keep colour so the theme remained a constant. I kept the main cover story the largest photograph to keep that the main theme.
I have carefully chosen my images to include on the contents page so that they fit around my target audience and people that could be obviously interested in indie rock music genre. For example, in the bottom left corner I have included a photograph of lamp club which indie rock artists that have not been signed yet use to play live and get their music heard and therefore is so popular with teenage year group and people interested in indie rock music which is why my target audience could be interested to find the idea to go there or perhaps already be familiar with the place. My other image above the photograph of lamp is a photograph of ‘The Bicycats’ which are the band that are featured in my interview so this is once again a tease device in order to try and entice the audience. The other image I have included is the image that is included on the front cover, which is purposefully blurred that I took myself, I wanted it to blurred as it was originally an action shot that just became blurred but I especially wanted it like this so you can just vaguely see the guitar and the stereotypical ‘messy’ hair that boys interested in indie music possess, which again may attract the opposite sex and anyway just interested in that style of fashion and music.
I divided my contents page up into sections to make it easier to read and digest for the audience, and also so you can look for the section that you want to read up on and then focus purely on that as opposed to having to search through the whole magazine. That is also why I made sure that I have numbered every single page in the magazine which is why you can see the page number in the bottom left hand corner of the contents page, I have also included ‘dark temptation’ in the bottom corner to in order to keep promoting the magazine name throughout the magazine. I have also included the issue date once again, to remind readers.
I have included a rhetorical device at the bottom of the contents page ‘what’s the big idea? Secret to success, fame and fortune?’ I have done this to include the audience further and this asks them to ask themselves the question which may make them want to read on and it also suggest what the magazine is going to be regarding. And as the magazine is interviewing a new hit band who are trying to make it big, it becomes obvious that fame and success is very important to them and they believe they really are living the dream so I hope that the rhetorical device is suggestive of this.
Double Page Spread
I have decided to analyse my double page spread against NME’s example and I did this because it has been extracted from a magazine of a similar genre, and is evidently similar to mine as both band artists are holding and playing their musical instruments which I personally think suggests and emphasises their passion for music. There is also various images of the band on both examples and you are able to see examples of what they actually look like on both double page spreads. There is also a pull quote situated at the top in order to entice the reader, which I have also included, and they are both situated at the top so that it is the first thing you read so you can decide whether to read the rest of the smaller print. Similarly, they are both exclusive to the magazine and have this stated on both apart from NME have said ‘world exclusive!’ One of the differences is that I have enlarged the band’s name and I have done this purposefully as I wanted the band’s name to be clearer and easier to see so that they could be recognised slightly more so. Whereas on NME’s version they have just included the name very small and slight underneath the pull quote, however, I didn’t want the pull quote to be the main focus I wanted the band’s name to be, after all that is who the interview is about.
I have also kept the theme consistent once again, by only including black, red and yellow and keeping it on a black background just like my contents page. I think this also adds to how cynical and dark the magazine is meant to be, and this has been down in NMEs version also I think it is suggestive of the genre completely.
Their clothes are also completely suggestive of the genre and type of music in which they are interested in and this enables my target audience to be able to look at the mise en scene in the photographs in order to encourage them to draw conclusions and judge whether the band’s music is going to be for them or not. From NMEs double page spread we can tell that the genre is indie rock because, even if the audience are unaware of my chemical romance’s music, as their outfit is all black with long hair bowed down which is very similar to the hairstyle that is featured on my front cover and contents page but is still constantly used on these photographs also. I think the female band member makes the band more intriguing as she is blonde and not wearing black which therefore connotes the opposite of dark and cynical and so perhaps the audience would find this intriguing as to what type of genre they are. Although, I am hoping that the colours and style of my magazine makes it clear which genre they are as they are featuring in a magazine like ‘dark temptation.’
The pull quote that I chose was ‘we really are living the dream at the minute, so stoked.’ This was the quote I chose because I think the language perhaps gives an impression of the band by using the verb ‘stoked’ describing how they feel which means the same as excited. I also chose this quote because it shows their enthusiasm for the band and how excited they are to be a part of it and how much they love what they are doing which I think maybe gives a positive impression about the music industry and new bands on the scene. Also it reverts back to the rhetorical question included in the bottom left hand corner of my contents page, which I mentioned earlier in my evaluation as it is saying that fame and success really is everything they dreamed in their opinion which makes them look really positive but also the magazine too as they have interviewed someone like this. This is then continued when they quote ‘it’s a pleasure to be here, cheers a lot’, this shows good manners again and promoting a good image for the magazine.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product represented teenage years for the most part and the music genre of indie rock. We can tell this because of the photographs included throughout the magazine, they are suggestive of the magazine’s genre and the type of people that would be interested. I chose to make some questionnaires and handed them out within Wyke college as the students are of a similar age to what the magazine is targeting and therefore I could receive accurate feedback which I could use successfully, as it is useful. I believe that my magazine will relate to the younger generation as it appears more hip and cool which would appeal much more to younger audiences, and the positive feedback I gained from my questionnaires confirmed this. I then handed a questionnaire to a family member who was 40 years of age to compare the difference and asked them if they were as interested and the feedback came back as neutral, but they did not have the same interest as teenage years. This is why my target audience is 16-19 years, and obviously people who are interested in the indie rock genre of music. The price I have chosen for my magazine is £1.00 as I think this is reasonable and this was voted the most positively throughout the questionnaires and therefore this shows what the public want. I would say that my main aim is to appeal to the public and my target audience as they are the people purchasing the magazine and so this is the only way I am going to be able to get the magazine to sell successfully. Also this price is reasonable and affordable for students who will be buying the magazine, and puts the magazine in a good place in terms of the competitive industry and the price will also be a demographic to my target audience. I feel it is so important to choose a manageable price for the magazine or the audience will not purchase it.
Questionnaire:
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
If my magazine was to be published by a company, I think the most likely company to want to publish my magazine would be Bauer as they are missing a magazine of my genre, as when I researched the company I looked for the companies that are available and already being published by their company and they are missing a magazine with an indir rock genre and therefore I think that I could bring this to them.my magazine is very similar and very much in the style of NME and this is the magazine in which they have not got, they have similar music magazines such as ‘kerrang!’, ‘empire’, ‘mojo’ and ‘q’, however these are all focused around slightly different genres of music. Other companies are not a good choice to target as they already have a magazine such as ‘NME’ or a similar magazien of the indie rock genre and therefore my magazine will be of no use to them as they will not need another magazine of this genre.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I think the main skill in which I have learnt from constructing my product is the way in which I use media technology. When I look back at my Wyke college magazine which I completed when I first started using blogger. All the while, I have been learning new editing techniques which I feel have helped me to better my work. Here is a photo of my Wyke college front cover:
You can see from the photograph of the Wyke front cover (above) that it is not very professional and it is evident that I was not very confident at using Photoshop as you can see I have not experimented very much with editing techniques as I was unsure how. This was my worst version of the cover which is why I decided to recreate it, however I do feel that the way you progress with Photoshop is to keep experimenting and rectifying your front cover many times.
In the above photographs you can see that I have edited the background photos so they are black and white and I have experimented with different examples of background photographs to see which worked best but with using black as a consistent back ground colour throughout my magazine I did want to include some colour on the front colour so that it would stand out to the audience and appeal to readers but also use an image that gave an accurate impression of the genre of the magazine. But I kept the consistent darker colour throughout the rest of the magazine so by experimenting you can pick up ideas like this. These 2 were good drafts also as I used images that were not completely my own and so I therefore rectified this in my final draft so that my work was completely my own, I took the opportunity of making two drafts to experiment with ideas to use on my final front cover. I changed the font to a bigger bolder font which was sans serif meaning it looked more suited to the indie rock genre, again giving the impression to the audience of the genre. I made the masthead larger and put it in a bright red to make it stand out more. By stretching the image and blurring it slightly I created an out of focus action shot of the artist as I wanted it to show movement. I also made my ‘plus’ box on paint then added it on photo-shop by copying and pasting.
Final front cover:
Here we can see the final details which I have changed to make my finished front cover and media product. I made the masthead even larger, added various other conventions of front cover such as an issue number, date, price and the barcode. I experimented with different fonts again to create fonts that reflected the genre of indie rock. This made both texts stand out more. I experimented with the red outline around the black bold text reading ‘Leeds fest calls’ this made it stand out more and therefore appealing to my target audience and made sure I included events that would appeal to my target audience and information about them such as ‘lamp’ and Leeds fest and then also artists and bands that appeal to them also. I also added a tagline of what my magazine believed in almost like a slogan for my magazine, ‘it’s the year of the beast!’ again giving another impression of the magazine appealing to my audience. I added the pull quote to intrigue the audience and moved it to a position that was more noticeable on the cover to show that the interview was one of the main features of this issue. I made all these changes to try and make my magazine look more professional and appealing to the audience to purchase.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel like I have learnt so much from experimenting in Photoshop and progressing my editing skills and techniques. The college magazine was my practise run before starting my actual coursework and I am so pleased I did it to prepare me and help me to gain some experience for my coursework and give me some extra skills. I think that I have definitely developed from this when I look back at my college magazine and my previous drafts for my front cover and I can see the improvements being made all the time. It is interesting to see how I have developed these editing skills, for example being able to change the colour of photographs and developing different effects that I have found on the Photoshop program, all to help me to get my work to look more realistic and professional when compared with published magazines. By looking back at my preliminary task you can see that I have included a photograph taken on the Wyke site that has not been cropped, edited or experimented with, but when looking at the images included in my magazine, they have been darkened and lightened and stretched as these are all effects and techniques I experimented with and liked and then decided to include. By learning the conventions of a magazine front cover, I feel I have a better understanding of the how the layout and structure should look throughout the magazine, for example where things should be placed, such as the masthead, you can see in the preliminary task I have placed it in the right hand corner when it is conventionally supposed to be placed in the left. I have also been able to change the style of the masthead and other text included not only to make it look more interesting but also to make it more in keeping and relevant with the rest of my magazine front cover and the genre of my front cover.
Word count: 3,912
