Evaluation Question 7

Evaluation Question 5

How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

 

My music magazine, FLOW, uses a variety of conventions that other professional magazines use in order to attract their target audiences for instance, I have included a masthead which is obviously 'FLOW' and even though the colour of it is quite plain I have made it very big so that it is easy to read and catches the eye of people who walk past it. I have chosen the word flow as the masthead because it is simple and it suits the R&B music genre very well as the music being produced for this genre is all about how the artists present their voice and the font style of the masthead is smooth because it looks like it a type of graffiti and therefore it can represent my target audience as they are quite young people.

 

Another magazine convention I have used in my product are sell lines which are presented in my front cover. It is not just music magazines that need to have sell lines but every single magazine has to have this on their front cover because it helps them to attract more customers as it lets them know what the top stories are and what is exactly included in the magazine, an example of one of my sell lines is 'THE TOP 10 R&B ARTISTS PAST AND PRESENT' and although it is a very long sell line it still does its job because my target audience would want to see their favourite artist in a top 10 list and the only way for them to find out if they have made is by buying the magazine. I have also included a banner at the bottom of my front cover which informs the people buying it who are also in the magazine even if they are not mentioned on the sell lines.

 

The layout design for my front cover, contents page and double page spread are all very simple because I did not want to make it complicated with a lot of stuff on them because it would look messy and very unprofessional. The colour scheme for my music magazine is a bit strange as it is black, red and blue, I have done this because I have not seen any other magazine use this colour scheme while I was looking at others and I thought that it would be a very good idea for me to use this colour scheme because it would allow my magazine to stand out and be different to other ones and therefore it would catch a lot people's attention even though there is not any bright colours on the front cover. Furthermore, the locations I have chosen for my contents page and double page spread are very good for this type of music genre in my opinion because the brick wall represents my target audience as that's what a lot of people think they spend most of their time, outside and I chose the plain white wall for the contents page pictures because I did not want it to have any designs and that white wall was very local to where I live. Moreover, the costumes that my models are wearing are also quite simple because as you can see from my research the models on front covers are wearing casual clothing which is suitable for this genre as that's what you see R&B artists wear, so overall it was not very hard to choose what my models should wear.

 

I have chosen all of these things by myself with a little help from researching other magazines that are similar to mine in order to communicate particular ideas to my target audience as I have found  out from my audience research that I should design this magazine for the teenagers aged 15-19 years old.

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 1

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My product does look like a typical music magazine because I have included some of the key magazine conventions that should be on a magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread such as a masthead which is 'FLOW', the lead which is shown on my double page spread under the main headline. I have also included sell lines on my front cover so that when people see it they know straight away that it is a front cover of a music magazine because I mention certain music artists related to the my genre which is R&B. Moreover, I have tried to use a colour scheme of black, red and white because by putting the colour red next to plain colours such as black and white it will help the sell lines to stand out and catch the audiences attention as they walk past. Another reason why I have done this is because it will help separate other pieces of texts on my contents page and double page spread so that they will not look like it is all in one because it will make both pages untidy and unorganised.

I have analysed existing professional products such as 'VIBE', 'Q' and 'XXL' magazines. I have analysed these existing products on my blog because they cover a similar type of music genre I have chosen and by doing this it will help me to get ideas from them so that I can add them to my own product. Not only do they cover a similar type of music genre in their magazines but I have chosen these specific magazines because they caught my eye straight away and this made me realise that I should do something similar to what these magazines have done so that people will know what type of magazine it is. Also, by doing this then I will be able to challenge real media products and this will allow me to get more people interested in my magazine even though it is similar but in a way it is different as it will feature a variation of music artists instead of the main ones in the R&B genre.

Furthermore, I think that my product clearly fits into the music genre because not only do I mention artists such as Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj and R.Kelly who can all be put into this genre, but I have also included my own models and I think that they are perfect for this genre because of the type of clothing they are wearing. The clothing of my models are so typical to what an R&B artist would wear for example in the contents page my models are wearing a hat, hoodies and a green belt that is showing and on the front cover my model is wearing a black baseball jacket and jeans (not clearly shown) and I think that I chose the perfect model for the front cover because he naturally suits the genre I have chosen to do.

Even though my photography skills are not usually good I think that I have done quite a good job at taking my pictures especially for the front cover because I did not want to show the whole of his body so instead I used a close up shot as it would allow my models face to be clear and his jacket was my favourite piece of clothing. I also chose the location of this photo shoot carefully because I wanted to make my model look like he was from the urban part of London but then I changed my mind and I wanted the background to be plain with a bit of contrast and that's what I went for.

Contents Page

Final Front Cover

Music Magazine Audience Research

Front Cover Draft

Magazine DPS Second Draft

Magazine Front Cover Analysis

As you can tell, this is a front cover of Vibe magazine and the model being used for this is the musician T.I.
The type of shot that is used is a mid-shot because it  only shows the artists face and a bit of his body.
The colour scheme of this magazine is quite simple since it uses red, white, black and blue. These colours go well together and because the background and clothing colour are dark this helps the masthead and the rest of the texts to stand out more.
Also, there is only a few sell lines on this front cover but it takes up quite a lot of space because of the size of the font.
The masthead of this particular magazine is 'VIBE' and it is very big and bright as it uses the colour red but some of it is cut off because it it behind the model.
The type of clothing that the model is wearing goes very well with the background because they are the same colour. Also, as you can see he is wearing some silver jewellery which represents the type of person/music artist he is and the way he is wearing his hat, tilted to the side also connotes this.
Furthermore, there is another feature that you don't see on other front covers which is the barcode scanner on the left and this allows the reader to use their smart phone to scan it and it shows them an exclusive issue of the magazine.
Also, for the text they used two different colours red and white. This is so that it stands out and catches the readers attention.

Contents Page Pictures (Evidence)

Here are the pictures that I have taken for my contents page. The type of clothing that my model is wearing is sort of casual but it is something that an R&B music artist would wear as his clothes are looking new and fresh. The reason why my background is how it is presented is because it doesn't matter how the background is because I will be making it plain and white when editing it on Photoshop but I still had to get the lighting right with it being not too sunny but not too dark, so I chose the perfect day for this.

Photography Experiment Task

These are the photos that me and my group took when were given the task to experiment with the lighting, composition and positioning of the shots. We did this task in order to help us with our photography for our double page spreads, contents page and front cover because as you can see we have taken a variety of shots such as extreme close ups and low angles. 

Double Page Spread Pictures (Evidence)

These are the pictures that I took for my double page spread and I first thought that my background image for it would look good with a brick wall and as this was last minute the only space I was able to find was the one shown in the first two pictures, but as you can see there was a plug socket also in the background. So then I thought that I should change it and I found this plain white wall next to my house and using the flash of the camera it turned out well.

Magazine DPS Draft

Double Page Spread Draft (Photoshop)

Two Other Contents Page Analysis

 The main image for Vibe is also the background of the artist Ciara. Whereas the main image for Q is of Adele which is a close up shot and is only taking up about a quarter of the page.

There are no subsidiary images used in Vibe's contents page, while the subsidiary image in Q's contents page is shown at the bottom.

There is also no summarised information about what is going on in Vibe magazine. However, there is summarised information on Q's contents page and this is at the bottom of the page where it says 'Review'.

There are no parts of Vibe's contents page that are sectioned off, whereas in Q there are bits that are sectioned off such as the 'Features' part and the bit where it says 'Every Month' on the bottom left of the page.

The page number for Vibe's contents page is presented on the bottom right of the page in a very small sized font but there is no page number for Q's contents page.

For both Vibe and Q's contents page there are no promotional features presented on them.

The logo for Vibe is not shown on their contents page but there is a white outline of the letter 'V' shown at the top of the page. However, the logo for Q magazine is presented in numerous places on their contents page for instance at the top left of the page next to where it says 'Contents' and below the main image next to where it says 'Review'.

There is no issue number for Vibe magazine's contents page. However, I believe that the issue number for Q magazine is on the top right hand side of the page next to the date where it says '262'.

For both Vibe and Q magazine contents page there are no letter from the editor.

The colour scheme for Vibe magazine is black and white since the background goes from black, grey then white and the clothing worn by the model is the same colour as the background, also the colour of the font being used either black or white. However, the colour scheme for Q magazine is red, black and white since the logo of the magazine is red and the font colour is black and there are some white parts.

XXL Contents Page Analysis

• The main image for this contents page is of Dr.Dre which is also being used as background for the text. The main image is in black and white so that it suits the colour scheme of the magazine. 
• There are no subsidiary images used in this contents page.
• There is also no summarised information about what is on the mag.
• There is only one bit that is sectioned off from the rest which is shown on the top bit of the page where it has the number 58. This is because it lets the readers know that it is the most important bit.
• The page number is shown in the bottom left of the page in a very small sized font.
• There are no promotional features for this contents page.
• The magazine logo is shown on the top right hand side of this page next to the date/month where it says XXL. It uses red and white so that it stands out and it can be recognised by the readers.
• There is no issue number for this contents page but there is a date which is placed underneath the masthead, 'the A-side'
• There is also no letter from the editor for this contents page.
• On this contents page it shows the editorial team for this issue, this is shown at the very bottom of the page on a black banner so that it lets people know that it is separate from the rest. 
• Furthermore, the colour scheme for this contents page is very simple but it is organised in a very good way. The colours used in this are black, red and white with the colour black being the more dominant of the three especially in the image where the artist (Dr.Dre) is wearing all black clothing.

DPS Draft

This is a draft of my DPS which shows that my model will be placed only on the right hand side and on the left hand side it will be all text where the article will be talking about an upcoming music artist who wants to make a name for himself in the RnB genre.