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Creating a music magazine MEDIA EVALUATION BY JACOB LUCAS

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Page 1: Media evaluation presentation

Creating a music magazine

MEDIA EVALUATION

BY JACOB LUCAS

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• 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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• A features page (double page spread) is a main article that tells the stories or information over two pages. They have to attract the right target audience in order to sell the story.

Features page

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• Neat, easily structured layout clearly advertises what is included within the magazine.

Contents page

A contents page is designed to inform the reader what is featured inside of the magazine.

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• A front cover is the main selling point of a music magazine, it has to draw you in to having a look at it. Depending on the target audience the front cover has to suite them.

Front cover

There are many different layouts and styles however I believe the most successful layout is with the central character taking dominance over the page and listing information around them

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• As you can see in the previous pages, these are my 3 final media products which I constructed using Serif page plus, photo plus and Adobe Photoshop 7. They are based upon a real music magazine in order to sell to a certain target audience. I labelled the 3 pages with correct media terms such as ‘pull quote’ and ‘house colours’ to show how I have used several features which are seen on real music magazines.

• With the task of creating a music magazine, much research was needed to understand what concepts and features went into them.

• I started with analysing other music magazines such as Blender and Vibe to get a brief idea of what to expect, looking at the target audience via the magazines reader profile I found out what the buyers of the magazines were interested in and what they looked for in the magazine. Using a reader profile I put down all the key information about my target audience on to a page to help me create my magazine pages. Doing this helped me with house colours, pictures and laying it all down in a specific way to attract the target audience into buying the magazine.

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• I used basic music magazine layouts to plan out my pages. Inspired by DJ magazine I created a similar contents page that had an effective, easily structured layout with some of my own design features that personalised the layout. For my target audience I had to think outside of the box, no other magazines on the market have such a specific niche audience as my idea of a Dub Step magazine.

• I had to create questionnaires and polls to suite this gender of music so I could figure what would sell. Throughout a list of questions I figured the target audience had a short attention span and it would be hard to keep their attention. I used bright neon colours on a black background to make things interesting, the bright colours contrasted with the background and drew your eyes around the page. The colours that mainly stood out from the background were bright green and yellow, when everyone evaluated my final pieces they were said to look like a night club with the bright strobe lights, “It is a very different look but it is very effective with the Dub scene”.

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• The mise-en-scene is very important within selling a product like this, the photographs have to literally sell the product as they are the first thing that attracts your attention. I had to think about my target audience and research for taking a load of photos that could possibly feature at some point in my coursework. I chose a few of my favourite photos, for each of the pages, the front page picture is of an actual DJ performing Dub Step in a club which is perfect for the theme of my music mag. I took the picture from a high, close up angle which none of the audience at the club could have got to, this creates a sense that the magazine is up close and personal with the DJ which also makes you feel at the same level as the artist by purchasing my magazine.

• I could not just leave the pictures at that, using Adobe Photoshop 7 I edited, cropped and played around with my chosen photo. With the Features page I selected an image, I used a flat cap and hoody for costuming. Using my subwoofers, laptop, cd’s and a red light bulb I created the perfect lighting and set up for a club/rave atmosphere, using a range of angles to create different effects I found that a low angle was best as it gave the central character dominance and a sense of power which fitted with my magazines look.

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Playing around with effects such as the contrast, spot light, neon green and solarise effect I made my picture match the house colours of my music magazine.

I cropped, used a spotlight tool and blacked out the background so the character and decks were only visible on the black background.

I realised I had to scale up this picture for my features page so I sharpened it and made the picture brighter to get a ‘rave’ like feel.

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• For my style and fonts I decided to go for a mixture of serif and san serif. When the area or box out was very bright and colourful I decided to use stronger, more formal serif font so I always had a fair balance for my target audience. I also figured it would get boring if the font stayed the same all of the time so I used ‘funky’, ‘cool’ font styles for titles and subtitles to really catch the attention of my judge full target audience.

• Also the language used in the text is formal, however it has a twist of over exaggerative words and quotes that make the subject matter seem a lot more interesting.

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• Dub Step is a new age of music, born in the 90’s it is created through virtual electronic devices such as synths and computer DJ programmes.

• With simple drum beats, wobbling synth sounds, hard bass lines and a dramatic melody you can have a piece of Dub Step.

• Many people are not so sure about Dub Step, complaining about it being too loud or being just noise?! However what they don’t know is the Dub Step culture is rapidly growing with more and more people purchasing tracks and creating their own tunes.

• People who tend to listen to Dub Step are a younger audience that have a party life style and probably never sleep, also going to clubs, raves and other illegally made nights out but with the growing sensation I believe more and more different audiences will start to enjoy it!

• My music magazine is perfect for any Dub Step enthusiast, supplying you with all the up to date news and tunes you will be on top of the game if you keep reading through. In Dub Step Central you can find all of your favourite artists and up and coming artists who will be smashing it in the future, My magazine supplies the right amount of entertainment if you really are in to this genre. Everything is designed and produced for the fans benefit and it’s a promise that you will not be disappointed with the content.

Dub Step Genre

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• 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

chavemo

nerd

Seen kidspopularThe media lot

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• Within my genre of music there is a couple of ‘social groups’, there is the ones who appreciate the music in its self, My target audience is mainly carefree and rebellious. Living a lazier lifestyle during the day and going out to venues and raves at night to party. They will always back up their genre as if they invented it

As you can see, my house colours are very bright and your eyes are instantly drawn to the page. All the features to my magazine are designed in a certain way to attract the target audience.I have found out that my target audience has a short attention span therefore the ratio of pictures to writing needs to be about equal

My target audience would also be into other electronic genres of music such as Drum and Bass and Drum step. They are both produced in the same way as Dub Step but have a different tempos and styles behind them.Apart from that my magazines audience are not usually very open to different genres but their own.

I made some subtle decisions for my magazine, for my newly introduced artist Skank Pavillion I used a low angle camera shot to give the readers a strong first impression, making them think he is worth looking in to.

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• 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

These are Reader Profiles, the one on the left is mine, created for my institution to tell them what the target audience are interested in and what they are looking for in the magazine. I believe my reader profile should share a few factors with the NME reader profile as they supply roughly the same target audience.

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• I would say that NME’s institution is a lot more like mine than the Uncut institution.• The uncut magazine classes its self as NME’s cooler, older brother. I beg to differ, I

find the readers of uncut a lot duller than NME readers.• Like my music magazine, NME readers are simple, easily amused and happy with

the things they have got as long as they have got the right music.• I believe that NME’s media institution would be happy to sell my Dub Step

magazine as it would bring a new audience in and would specialise with them. This would make them happy and would bring a better image to the institution by catering for the publics needs.

• I am a current reader of Mix Mag ‘The world’s biggest dance music and clubbing magazine’, Their issue The greatest DJ of all time really inspired me in to creating my music magazine, For me no other magazine addresses their audience in a better way. They really know their target audience and their needs. Considering Dub Step is a form of dance music I used certain features like events and camera angles in my magazine like seen in Mix Mag.

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• 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

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I love Dub Step shirt, expressing the love for Dub Step. Lets all of your friends know you are proud to say you love something different.

Nike Jordan Hi tops, very fashionable shoes and will be the most important part of their outfits.

Skull Candy headphones, latest in DJ trends and can stand the abuse of your loud, bassy Dub Step.

Cheap, Nike sweatband, keeps your head dry after those endless raves.

My average reader

Grey nike hoody coming from the hoody culture gives the charecter more street cred.

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• My ideal reader is a teenager, possibly driving with a beat up little car with giant subwoofers.

• It will be a male and they will spend all day in a bed covered with food and nothing but an Xbox controller in their hands. They will be popular within their age group and will have a group of friends that go to all the gigs and events with them.

• Their favourite TV programme is MTV music channel and they will always be caught making new Dub Step tunes on their computer.

• My average reader purchases my magazine because it offers a product designed just for their reading pleasures. Their is not another Dub Step magazine out there that can keep up with the quality, features and popularity of Dub Step Central. Instantly being drawn in by the bright colours and text which mentions Dub Step it is going to be hard to refuse.

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• I did some research which included questionnaires to find my average reader, I found out some small facts such as what they watch on tv and what is their favourite foods. All of this information makes it easier for me to sell my magazine as I know what makes them happy. I put all the information down on a reader profile to give the institution the same knowledge.

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• 5. How did you attract/address your audience?

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• Using forms and conventions I addressed my target audience in a very strong way with recognisable Bald, neon typography and language that truly spoke to them as if no other institution would understand. They were not expecting my magazine to be on the market and with research and great knowledge on the genre a down to earth Dub Step magazine was created.

• The main task of a magazine is to attract the customers in to buying your magazine. With this a successful Front cover is essential. I have mentioned how I edited and added to the page to get it picture perfect for the readers but behind the scenes I had to use a lot of research and rely on the target audience to tell me a lot of truthful answers, otherwise I would not have a magazine up to their standards.

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• I used research methods such as www.surveymonkey.com, this helped me create an online questionnaire which I distributed over Face book to get some results to my questions.

With an idea of who I was addressing I spoke in their language, used forms they would love to see and made the reader the most important thing as my magazine was all about the readers happiness.

I would say that my main selling point of the magazine is in fact the double page spread articles. My magazine receives stories and facts about some of the biggest artists and events to date that no one would have heard of. Dub Step fans are thrilled to find out new facts they can tell their mates about. I also present them with such an interesting, blown out look that the reader cannot choose where to start from excitement.

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• Also another feature that successfully distributed my magazine was the pull quotes and cover lines on the front cover. They let the reader briefly know the main entertaining spread of the issue!

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• 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

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• I have discovered many new computer programmes throughout this assessment that have helped me research, edit, create and explore in the world of media.

Here are some of the programmes that helped me create my assessment...

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• Serif page plus 11

Serif Page Plus 11 was a big part of my coursework as I created all 3 pages with it. I experienced some difficulty and some big problems with my version being un compatible with the schools version which lead to stress and issues with deadlines.

Eventually I got the hang of it and was using all of the software to it’s full potential. I enjoyed using this programme over any others as it was simply layed out making it easy to use and I could easily create a product to my liking.

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• Face book, social network site

Facebook is a social networking site that has taken the world by storm. People around the world use it to stay in contact with their friends and pay tribute to their favourite musicians and groups.I decided to use Face Book as part of my project to get my answers. I set up a questionnaire over survey monkey and distributed it to my friends over face book and got some answers that would help me with my project.I also used Face book for when I was a bit lost with my work, someone was able to send the questions over face book in order for me to carry on.

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• www.blogger.com

Blogger is an online database in which you can have your own profile and make your own posts. Our media class posted all the coursework on to their own seperate profile and could follow each other to see how far we had come.I enjoyed how you could personalise your own blog with different backgrounds and with typography and posts.

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• Adobe Photoshop elements 7.0

I used Adobe Photoshop for all of my pictures. With its professional editing equipment I edited and customised all of my pictures to suite the magazine. Some of the effects were amazing as you could tint the picture to what colour or quality you desired, making my magazine gave me more knowledge on using photo shop.

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• Samsung cameraI used my Samsung camera when taking pictures for my coursework. With its extra screen on the front the character could make sure they were on screen and I could also take pictures without anyone's help.Also with its high mega pixels I could take a great quality photo and enlarge it as much as I wanted without distortion.

Red light bulbFor my mise en scene I wanted to try something a bit different to anyone else. I purchased a red light bulb to create an underground rave like scene. It worked very well with all the other props and the rave scene was very convincing.

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• With the development of my coursework my skill in the technology also developed. As well as applying my knowledge I have also learnt and will be able to use it with more confidence in the future.

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• 7. Looking back at your preliminary task ( the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

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• As you can see my skill and understanding of creating a magazine rapidly improved. With my first school magazine task it looks as if I have no understanding what so ever as I have not edited the photographs, not made any use of the space and basically just taken a lazy approach.

By doing the first preliminary task it made me realise what was needed to be done in order to achieve a successful magazine. I went out and did some research so I knew what was on a typical music magazine and what my target audience would actually appreciate.

Skills in all areas have been improved from the preliminary task to the main coursework, photography is a main area I feel I have improved on. I have captured camera angles with the right meanings and understandings. Also the editing of the pictures I am happy with. I have learnt how to do this by playing around with draft versions.

I have used a wider range on typography as you can see I only used one style of font for my school magazine front cover whereas I have used 5 or 6 different fonts on my music magazine.

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• THANKYOU FORWATCHING!

Well, mainly reading!