My chosen genre

The genre which I have chosen for my music magazine is 'pop' as you can see above I have posted some pictures that are typically associated with pop from the 00's and who are current at this moment in time. I personally believe there is a great market for a pop music magazine because the majority of radio stations play chart music is classically recognised with pop music. Even though I personally am not a great fan of pop music I still think that with all my research I could make a representative pop music magazine as the layout will stick to a traditional conventional features that most magazines have. 


From the images i have posted you can tell that they are associated with poop because of the way that they pose and the clothes that they wear, as the tend to smile in their photos and wear bright clothes or be identified with bright colours. Comparing pop to rock you can identify both genres as rock images are usually dark and tend to also wear dark clothing as well as not smiling and having long hair to link to their genre. Below I have posted some images that show the contrast between genres. 

Here is a typical rock band 'Guns N Roses' as I mentioned above they are wearing dark clothing and the lighting is also dark creating a certain atmosphere, and there poses show they are not smiling and stand in way that makes them look rebellious. 

Here is a pop duo 'Icona Pop' in contrast to the the rock image above the colours are bright and bold and there poses and totally different as they they look more friendly and fun, also the shot is more of close up then a mid close which is shown in the rock image, so that you do not see there stance.  

The brief - Music magazine

The Brief 

Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images. 

Examples of music magazines

Evaluation

Evaluation

My magazine front cover uses and develops forms and conventions of real media products, for example I have a main image on my front cover, then I have a puff that advertises a free calendar which is used as anchorage to get more of my targeted audience to buy the magazine. Adding to this I also included on my front cover a Masthead which is the title of my magazine which was 'the College life', also down both the right and left hand sides of the front cover I added anchorage text which included information about the articles included within the magazine. Traditionally the skyline is at the top of the magazine above the masthead however I decided to challenge this and but my skyline and the bottom of the cover as I believed I looked better. Finally the last convention that I added to my front cover was the date and price at the top right hand corner and the barcode in the bottom right hand corner.

My media product represents particular social groups firstly it represents students however the sub group that my magazine front cover represents is more creative students such as art students or photography students this is because the main image is of a student on a sewing machine in a textiles environment which immediately attracts the attention of creative students. Also another point on how my front cover represents creative students is the anchorage text around the cover and especially the skyline as it states 'College is not just book'.

The overall targeted audience for my magazine front cover is college students, both female and male, what indicates that this is my target audience is straight off the masthead which is 'the College Life' this immediately attracts the attention of college students because the word 'college' is in the title. I attracted my target audience firstly by the image I used as my main image, I choose a college student at the age 17 to be my model for the front cover, also to attract my audience I used a specific colour scheme to make it stand out and the anchorage text was not just about the work at college but the social life outside of college hence the title 'the College life'.

From the process of constructing this I have learnt various technologies, firstly I learnt all the different conventions used to create a good magazine cover. Also I also developed my skills in Photoshop to my the magazine cover more realistic, when it came to creating my magazine cover I first to the main image I wanted to use luckily enough I did not have to edit the background or take anything out of the picture because it was took in the correct setting that I wanted to use, also all the objects within the picture where needed as it made it look realistic and it was in an actual classroom rather than a studio classroom. On another had I did have to alter the brightness and contrast of the image to fit in with my colour scheme which was white and red. After altering the main image I added my text to create the cover and the puff which made it stand out. Therefore overall I believe I have expanded my knowledge further on the correct terminology for analysing media products.

Looking back at my perfume task, I feel I learnt in the progress of creating this finished magazine cover various new terminology for analysing media products and my confidence on using Photoshop has increased greatly, as I have become familiar to the tools on Photoshop and how they all work affectively to create a media product. I have also learnt the specific layout of magazine front covers and contents pages and how they are put together. 

Unused images

Unused images

When it came to doing my college magazine I started off by researching various different types of college magazines and evaluated the conventions and did a LIIAR analysis of a front cover also. After acknowledging the conventions used to create a college magazine I did some drafts and brain stormed my own ideas for my own magazine cover, after drafting my ideas I went on to start taking photos that I may use for my main image here are few of my unused images;

Final front cover

Final front cover of my college magazine.

Inital ideas spider diagram

Digital mock up of contents page

Digital mock up of front cover

Contents page conventions

Examples of shot types

Shot types 

In media industries names and guidelines are given to common types of shots, the list below breifly descirbes the most common shot types.

MS (Mid shot)

Shows some part of the subject in more detail whilst still giving an impession of the whole subject.

MCU (Medium Close up)  

Halfway between a mid shot and a close up.











CU (Close up)

A certain feature or part of the subject takes up the whole frame.







ECU (Extreme close up)

The ECU gets right in and shows exreme detail.