Note To Moderator

Dear Moderator,

The brief for my Media studies A/S coursework was to create a front cover, contents page and double page spread for a new music magazine. I chose to do my magazine based on the genre of Indie and Alternative rock music because it is one of my favourite genres so I feel like I know what the market would like. There is also a shortage of indie/alternative related magazines around at the moment so my magazine could help to raise the popularity of the genre. I wanted to give the audience a magazine that was up to date with the latest indie, yet also keeps in contact with music from the past.

I have used labels on my blog so that it is easily navigable in order to find what you are looking for.

Yours sincerely, Harrison Smith, Edgbarrow School.

Candidate number: 0228

Centre number: 51111

Evaluation Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation Question 7

Here is a link to my Padlet about question 7:

Created with Padlet

Evaluation Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation Question 6

Here is my Google slides presentation about question 6:

Evaluation Questions 4/5 - Who would be the audience for your product? How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation Questions 4 and 5

In this post I am going to be talking about what different age brackets and genders would feel about my magazine and what parts of my magazine are attractive to them.

Ages 12-16
The masthead of my magazine uses a large font which might help to entice the younger audiences. The guitar being held y the model might help to entice young enthusiasts of rock music or guitarists. The use of a mixture of old and new artists might also help with attracting the younger people with artists such as Imagine Dragons or Fallout Boy. These features are more likely to attract young males rather than young females since young females are more likely to like mainstream pop artists.
However, my magazine is not really designed to be attractive to this age bracket, so I have not included many features that are specifically used to attract younger people.

Ages 17-27
This is the one of the desired age brackets for my magazine. To help attract this age bracket I have used a simple layout and colour scheme, so that the magazine does not look too childish or over the top. This helps to attract young adults because it means they do not feel like they are buying a magazine that is designed for a young audience. The artists that are included within the magazine also help to attract young adults because the 17 to 28 years are of an age where they most likely appreciate both old and new music/musicians. The type of content included within my magazine will appeal to 17 to 28 year old's because they will be people who would like to know about both inside information, and also to be informed about upcoming event dates.

Ages 28-35
This age bracket will be attracted to my magazine mainly by the fact that my magazine includes articles about musicians from the past. This is because this age bracket would have been listening to when they were younger. The cover photo will also help to attract this age bracket because they will be more likely to recognise the artist on the cover. However, the cover image will not always be related to older artists. This age bracket will also be attracted by the colour scheme and the layout of the magazine because it is formal and not over the top.

Evaluation Question 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation Question 3

The two media institutions that I have previously studied are PIC and Bauer. Bauer media distribute over 600 magazines, 400 digital products and manage over 50 radio and TV stations worldwide. Some of their magazines include Q magazine and Kerrang! as well as other popular magazines such as Empire and FHM. The radio and TV stations they manage include Absolute Radio, Kiss, 4 Music and many other smaller local stations. IPC, also known as Time Inc. UK, manage one the UK's largest music magazines, NME. They also distribute another music magazine called Uncut. Both of these magazines are very similar to the genre of my magazine.

Bauer would be good to choose for my magazine because of the massive amount of connections they have within the music industry. Bauer's radio and TV stations could help with the advertising and marketing of the magazine, helping to get the magazine more coverage across a wider area. Bauer media also have a lot of experience in the magazine industry, meaning they could make the processes of production and distribution much easier and give good advice.

IPC would also be good to choose as the distributor of my magazine because the magazines that they currently distribute are of a very similar genre to my magazine, meaning they would know what methods of marketing help to sell to the target market of my magazine. However, IPC do not have the radio and TV connections like Bauer do, so the coverage and advertising of the magazine might not be as good as with Bauer. IPC may also not choose to take on my magazine because of their current magazines, since they are similar to mine, they might think that they would be distributing too many magazines that are similar.

My product would most likely be sold in newsagents like WHSmith and also music shops like HMV. This is because these are shops that people are most likely to buy music magazines from. They are also well known shops meaning a lot of people will visit these shops.

The products that my magazine would sit among would be magazines like NME, Q, Classic Rock, Kerrang!, Uncut andother magazines that are of similar genre.

Evaluation Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation Question 2

Here are two images, one of my cover image, and the other is a Classic Rock magazine cover that I used for inspiration:

Posture: Both of the models in these pictures are standing up straight, however the Classic Rock cover model has less of a narrow posture than my cover model because he is holding out his hands compared to my magazine where he is holding the guitar. 

Costume: Both of the models are wearing casual clothes to represent how they are laid back and do not need to use clothing to establish their popularity.

Shot type: The shots used for each image are fairly similar except the Classic Rock image is taken from a bit further back including more of the model and the guitar. This makes the magazine more distinguishable as a music magazine.

Both of these images are very similar so I feel that my magazine represents people within that social group in a similar way to other magazines for that genre. My magazine doesn’t include any articles about women which represents how the indie, alternative and  rock music industry is dominated by male artists. Because of this, the majority of my readers are likely to be male because most females will not want to read about all male artists. The colour scheme and house style of my magazine help to represent rock artists and fans as people who do no need the use of a lot of bright colours to make themselves stand out.

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media artifacts?

Evaluation Question 1

Here is my Prezi about question 1:

Final Drafts

Final front cover

For my final draft of my front cover, I have Made the cover lines on the left hand side all white so that the text does not clash with the background. I have also very slightly zoomed in on the picture and moved it slightly to the left. I have done this so that the model fits on the page a bit better and also so that the text to the right of the model does not touch his face.

Final contents page

For the final draft of my contents, I have shifted some of the big parts of text so that they fit the page better. I have also sorted the text in the 'visit page 65...' so that the spacing is now normal. I have also tried my best to crop the cover article picture so that the background is less visible. Finally, I have used another thin black line to separate page 9 and page 48 articles, keeping the style of the page consistent.

Final double page spread

For my final draft, I have added the smaller picture to the left page. I have also boxed/outlined and captioned the image so that the picture is not randomly placed. I have also cropped out a lot of background of the main image on the right. This helps to focus the image on the model and also removes a lot of the unnecessary background content.

Evaluation PLAN

Question 1 (prezi format)


Question 2 (blog post format)(Completed)

Images:

Here are two images, one is my magazines cover photo and the cover of a magazine that I used for inspiration ‘Classic Rock’ magazine. Posture: Both of the models in these pictures are standing up straight, however the Classic Rock cover model has less of a narrow posture than my cover model because he is holding out his hands compared to my magazine where he is holding the guitar. Costume: Both of the models are wearing casual clothes to represent how they are laid back and do not need to use clothing to establish their popularity. Shot type: The shots used for each image are fairly similar except the Classic Rock image is taken from a bit further back including more of the model and the guitar. This makes the magazine more distinguishable as a music magazine.

Both of these images are very similar so I feel that my magazine represents people within that social group in a similar way to other magazines for that genre. My magazine doesn’t include any articles about women which represents how the indie, alternative and  rock music industry is dominated by male artists. Because of this, the majority of my readers are likely to be male because most females will not want to read about all male artists. The colour scheme and house style of my magazine help to represent rock artists and fans as people who do no need the use of a lot of bright colours to make themselves stand out.

Question 3 (blog post format)

I would choose bauer media for my magazine’s publisher because they are primarily a music related media institution. They own a lot of radio stations that can help with promotion of the magazine. They also distribute a few music magazines already meaning they would be experienced in the music magazine industry. Bauer also distribute an existing music magazine called Q magazine which includes all genres. This would mean that Bauer have experience with selling to all types of music fans. A rival institute that bauer would have would be IPC media. IPC distribute the magazine NME which is a very popular magazine.

Question 4 (prezi format)

The audience for my magazine would be mainly male and female 17-28 year olds who have an interest in most forms of rock music. 

Question 5 (possibly video format)

I have used a wide range of artists from the genre to help entice all ages and help to appeal to more people. I have also included a range of articles from interviews, reviews, and lists of upcoming events. I have also tried to use a colour scheme that was similar to other magazines of the same/similar genre. I tried keep the colour scheme and house style simple and quite basic so that the magazine does not look too enthusiastic or possibly informal and possibly put off the target market from buying it.

Question 6 (google slides post)(Completed)

From this process I have learnt that it is much better to use a range of different media products to present my work. This includes presentation software like Prezi and Emaze to present my work rather than always using Microsoft office programmes. I have also learnt how to use Serif PagePlus X6 which is a very good programme for photo editing and creating projects from scratch. I have learnt that using blogger to present my work is a much more creative and unique method than printing everything off of Microsoft word.

Question 7(padlet format)

After the preliminary task I feel like I have learnt how to keep the house style consistent much better, which helps to make my magazine look much more professional. I have also learnt how to make my information stand out much better and appeal to my audience much better. This task has also helped me to improve my skills using software other than Microsoft office programmes and also helped me to see the benefits of using multiple media products like different presentation software.

Second Draft - Double page

Below is my second draft of my double page spread:

The main change that I have made to my double page spread is that I have widened the borders of the page to allow more room for text. I have also changed from two columns of text to three. I have done this so that the text is more spaced out and less packed together so that it is easier to read. I have also Given a white outline to the pull quote so that it is easier to read and stands out.

What I will be working on for my third draft is adding the past photo and also seeing what I can do to improve the main image on the right.

Second Draft - Contents

After making changes to my front page, I started working on my contents page.

For this draft I have tried to make the text smaller and allow more room for other articles. Some areas however still feel empty. I also need to expand the length of the text so that it fills the boxes better.

Second Draft - Front cover

I have started working on my second draft for my magazine and the first page I worked on was the front page.

For this draft I have added a lot more text to the edges of the page so that more space is filled up. I have also changed the position of the main article headline so that it is bigger and more easily noticeable as the headline. I have also increased the margins on the side of the page so that I have more space to work with and so that the page looks bigger and better.
I feel that I still need to work on the text and one change I may consider is bringing the masthead behind the picture so that the corner does not cut off the persons head anymore

End of first draft update

I have finished my first drafts so I will now be working on my second drafts. For my second drafts I will be working on making improvements to my first drafts and trying to make them look better.

First Draft - Double page spread

I have started my double page spread by doing a basic layout showing the planned positions of each part of the page.

From the basic layout you can see how the page on the right will be taken up by a picture with a quote pulled from the article over the top of it. I have decided to do this because after looking at examples of double pages on the internet, I found that this was a very common feature. I also decided to do this because I liked the look of it.
On the left hand page, I have used a small picture in the middle that will most likely be a picture comparing the artist 'then and now'. The text boxes are all connected using the text box linking tool that PagePlus X6 provides so that the text flows from box to another easily. The text boxes have been split down the centre of the left hand page using thin black lines like on the contents page. This has been done so that the text is separated and structured better, rather than having a large wall of text going all across the page.

Update:

I have finished my first draft of the double page by adding the text and the main picture.

I like the way this page looks however, I feel that I should make the text in size 12 font rather than size 13 so that more text can go on the page. I also feel that the picture could be zoomed in closer to the person or possibly retaken so that the window frames and the plant pot aren't in the way anymore. I also need to get the final picture in the centre of the left page. this picture will be a picture of my dad from the past to show the change.

First Draft - Contents page

Whilst I am working on my photos outside of school I decided to move on to drafting my contents page.

As you can see, I have tried to keep my contents as similar as possible to my front cover so that the house style of the magazine is maintained. Rather than boxing out everything, I have used thin black lines to separate each section of the contents page. I have however boxed out the page title, the titles on the left hand side of the page, and the fake advertisement. This is so that those headings stand out, since they are not written in as big text as the articles on the rest of the page. I have used different font colours on the page numbers to make the page look more unique and different.

My concern that I have for this draft are that there might not be enough articles on the page and that two articles might be too big on the page. My other concerns is that the fake advertisement may need some improvements so that it looks more realistic.

Update:

I have now added a picture for the main article to my first draft of my contents page.

I like the way the photo looks on the page however, i might need to retake the photo because of what is in the background. This is because there are plant pots and a window from my back garden and also because the other picture on my page has a brick wall as the background. The latter of the two problems could be solved by using a different picture for the second article. I will try to resolve these issues and make any other changes in my next draft.

First Draft - Front page

After designing the masthead, I went ahead and designed more of the front page including taglines and a slogan. Below is the picture:

I have changed the colour scheme slightly for this draft compared to my planned colour schemes and have instead used blacks, whites and greys. At first I liked the look of this color scheme, however I have come to realize that the lack of other brighter colours might not look as nice or as effective. This is something I will most likely address in my next draft.

I have used alternating blacks and greys on my left hand taglines to distinguish from the tagline and the brief previews of the articles.

I have also boxed out the list of artists that are in my magazine. I did this so that the artists names stand out better against the background and are much better at catching the eye of the reader, and making the magazine more enticing.

I do not have a cover image currently but I will add one as i progress.

Update:

I have now taken pictures to use for my magazine and have added one of the pictures to the front cover of my first draft.

After adding this picture I could see straight away that i needed to change the colour of the text of the articles on the left hand side because the black text was blending into the picture. I have also noticed that there are spaces around the persons head that may need to be filled with more articles so that the page doesn't look too empty. I did consider increasing the size of the photo and zooming in closer to the face, however this would show less of the guitar. I will work on these problems and make any other changes in my next draft.

First draft - Masthead

Once I started my first draft, I decided that the first part I would draft/design should be my masthead. Below is a picture of my first draft of my masthead.

For this first draft, I decided to use the Geometr885 BT font because of the large bold text that can be filled with colour to make it stand out against the white box. The masthead has been boxed out with a white box on my draft so that it stands out against the background which is a mixture of dark and light greys. I chose to use these colours for the masthead because they I thought they worked well with the rest of the colours on the page. The I.R.M has been written in full underneath the acronym so that people can identify what the acronym means, and it could also be used as a slogan. This text has not been filled in in grey yet but it will be as the draft progresses.

Music magazine - Planning

Here is a link to my presentation with my planning information on it:

http://prezi.com/fxgbymaqkxji/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Product placement

My target audience for my magazine is young people, mainly male, aged between 19-28 years. I have chosen this as my target audience because the results of my questionnaire have shown that this age bracket was the one that liked the rock/indie/mix all of genres as the theme of the magazine. This target audience has also been chosen because it is similar to the audience demographic of the magazine NME which is similar in style to my ideas. The average age for an NME reader is 25 years old and 73% of the readers were male. This information helped me to make the decision for what my target audience will be. I found this information from a presentation of slideshare.net:

http://www.slideshare.net/jacksierbien/nme-media-pack 

Two of the big media production companies are IPC media and Bauer media. These companies both distribute music magazine. IPC distributes the music magazine, NME, and Bauer distributes Kerrang! and Q magazine. Because both of these producers are very popular, they will sell their magazines in most music shops and they will most likely sell their most popular magazines, NME and Q, in supermarkets. These will also be distributed all across the country. Their magazines are also available digitally via subscriptions and on the magazines respective apps. This allows them to reach more customers and appeal to the increasing amount of online readers. The magazines are generally advertised on billboards and on bus station/train station advertisements. This is so that a lot of people see them and they are in high traffic areas. The magazines companies will also have their own social media accounts so that they can advertise their magazines online, where a lot of people will see it. Social media also allows the magazine to be shared much easier because people post about the magazines for others to see, or they can send the adverts to friends.

As the publisher for my magazine, I would choose Bauer media because after looking at their website, I saw that they own a lot of radio stations. This would be good because my magazine can be advertised via those radio stations. Another reason why I would choose Bauer is because they currently only distribute two music magazines, Q and Kerrang!, meaning my magazine would give Bauer more competition in the music industry. I would place my magazine in music shops such as HMV and also major newsagents such as WH Smith. I would not place it in large supermarkets because a supermarket is not the ideal place to sell a music magazine unless it is very popular. The magazine would only be sold in supermarkets if the sales of the magazine were high. Although magazine sales would be high in a supermarket, I feel as though my magazine would have to gain popularity in smaller shops first before it was sold in larger shops. I would also make my magazine available online so that the magazine can is available to a wider audience. Social media pages would be setup for my magazine on sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. This is so that the magazine can be advertised to many people and it is easy for people within the target audience to share the magazine with other people within the target audience.

NME magazine analysis

Here is my analysis of an issue of NME magazine. This includes analysis of the front cover, the contents page, and a double page spread.

Q magazine analysis

Here is my analysis of an issue of Q magazine. This analysis includes the front cover, the contents page, and a double page spread.

Questionnaire - Analysis

As part of my research, I made a quick questionnaire on Microsoft publisher. This survey asked people about what music they like and what kind of things they think about music magazines. I sent out 15 copies of my survey to people I know and these are the results.

For question one, eight people were male and seven people were female. On its own, this information is not much help. 

For question two, eight people were aged 17-20, five people were aged 21-24, and two people were aged 25-28. Again this is not much help on its own but it does tell me that the results I get are from people within my desired age brackets. 

For question three, the most popular answer was rock music with eight votes, then the next most popular answer was the ‘other’ option where five of the six people who said other specified indie/alternative as their favourite genre. Finally one person said pop music as their favourite genre. This helps me a lot because it shows me that rock and indie/alternative are very poplar genres of music.

For question four, nine people said that they do read music magazines regularly, two people said that they sometimes read music magazines, and four people said that they do not read magazines. This shows me that the majority of 17-28 year olds do read music magazines. 

For question five, one person said that they pick up a music magazine once a year, two people said they pick one up very few months, six people said they pick one up every month, and two people said that the pick up a magazine every week. This shows me that people within this age bracket are more likely to purchase a magazine weekly or monthly rather than yearly or quarterly. 

For question six, three people said they would be willing to pay less than £1 for a music magazine, seven people said they would pay between £1 and £1.99, and five people said they would be willing to pay £2 to £2.99. This shows me that the average amount of money people are willing to pay for a magazine is around £1 to £3. 

For question seven, four people said they would want to see gossip in a music magazine, five people said they wanted to see information on new releases in music, four people said they wanted to see exclusive interviews, and two people selected the option ‘other’. These two people both specified that they wanted to see suggestions for music events in the magazine. This gives me a good idea of what articles will be most popular within he music magazine.

Because rock music was the most popular choice for question three, I will most likely base my magazine around primarily rock music since I know that it appeals to a larger audience within my target market. Because the most popular price range was around £1 to £3, I will be displaying the price of my magazine as a value between this range so that my target market would be happy with it. For question seven the votes for the different article were all fairly equal which means that my target market would be happy to see a range of features. Because of this, I will try to include a range of these features in my magazine.

These results have been very useful for me and I will be using them during the design to help me make my decisions for which features and designs will suit the target market the most.

Questionnaire

Here is an image of my target market questionnaire:

Preliminary task - Evaluation

Preliminary task - evaluation

1.  Did you plan your magazine? If not, what have you learnt about the importance of research and planning?

      I did not do any planning before I started my magazine. I started to make my preliminary magazine with ideas about what I would do and what features I would include, but I did not write down or structure any ideas for my magazine.

      2.  What technology did you use to complete the task and how did you use it?

      To create this magazine I used software called Serif PagePlus X6 and I also used my phone to take the photo of the student on the cover. I used the cut out studio on PagePlus X6 to remove the background of the photo, making the student the main focus of the photo, and to cut out any unnecessary people or objects in the background. I also used PagePlus X6 to manipulate any text that I put on the page. I added outlines and shadows to some text in order to make it stand out.

      3.  Did you encounter any difficulties? If so, what were they and how did you overcome them?

      One difficulty I did encounter was that I was struggling to remove the background of the picture of the student. To overcome this problem I asked my classmates if they could help me and they guided me to getting it done.

      4.  For my front cover I feel that for a first attempt at a magazine I have done a fairly good job. The main picture stands out well and the text is large and bold making it easy to read. My main criticism of the front cover is that there is a fair amount of empty space near the top of the cover. To improve this I would use an image that shows off the student in a medium close up much better, so that it fills the space better. Other than this I would not do anything differently about the way I did this task.

      5.  From completing this task, I have learnt how to use software that can help me to get the best out of my work and use high quality tools to make it as good as possible. I have also learnt that making a magazine is not as hard as I expected it to be.

Preliminary task - Images