Evaluation

Final Magazine

This is the final copy of my magazine cover i am going to do an evaluation on ,how my magazine follows the forms and conventions of a real music magazine,if my magazine cover represents a certain social group or target audience and how layout would attract this particular audience a briefing on what i have learnt during creating this magazine and things i would do differently if given this task again.

forms conventions and attractions

My music magazine has a masthead("Base") which is conventional of any real music magazine.This makes the title of my magazine easily recognisable /readable by my target audience.There is a main cover line about a new single released by "d dot m ";this is conventional as it is the main story meaning it has the biggest font on the page.This along with my mast head and main cover image has been used in this way as it will attract the readers attention with its size.My main cover image of the artist allows the target audience to develope emotions towards him this will have positive affect the readers choice to pick up the magazine, it is typical of a potential reader to ignore a magazine if the masthead or main cover image/line story is not big enough.like a real magazine i have provided cover lines to attract the reader to want to read on and purchase the magazine.The names of the Uk artist i have chosen to put on the front page attract my target audience as they are young rnb artists.Mode of address is used in the title "base"i have used an "@" for the A ,as the social groups and target audience will be able to understand this.I have given my magazine strapline with the website address basemagazine.com which will encourage more interaction from the readers towards my magazine company; this also creates a sense of belonging for the readers. The barcode, price, and issue date give my magazine a professional look along with the conventions of a typical music magazine. Graphical images such as the paint splash and the bright background colour have been selected to give my magazine the urban look i am aiming for. I have placed lures such as "free tickets to Ludacris concerts" as they will attract the reader to take part in my competition which will increase my magazines readerships. This artist has been chosen for the purpose of him being an artist popular amongst my target audience; this will have a positive effect on the part-taking of the competition. As well as being conventional it is also important the price and date is labelled so it is clear to buyers; also for the reason of eliminating the potential reader contemplating whether to buy the magazine because the price and date issue is not clear. The overall structure has been chosen for conventional purposes and the aim to attract my target audience as much as possible. My front cover contains a lot of information and has clear images of artists liked by my audience. To enforce the importance of the main cover image i placed the cover lines to the sides where it is till readable.

The taregt audience for my magzine is ages 12 to early 20 s and anyone who is interested in the uk urban music scence.this is because children under the age of 12 will not be intestested by the images and writing on my front cover and the genre of magazine may not appeal to people in their late twenties and over.By choosing this target audience i am able to relate to them as we share the same inerests I can give them information on the type of things they may be interested in eg the latest fashion tips and up and coming British artists.i also believe by using a cover image of "d dot m" attract a the audience of young females as he is a young male artist.
my magazine represent a certain social group which is young and urban Instantly you can see this via the main cover image;the clothes that "d dot m " are wearing suggest that he is a young male with street fashion and he posses the body language of cocky but confident person and i think readers of this social group can relate to him.Also the cover lines include the names of the artsist that will be featured in the magazine attracting this particular social group because the racial background and status the artistis may come from.
I think my magazine will sell in any outlet Ie news agents because it appeals to a wide enough range of people.The type of media institution that might distribute this sort of magazine might be ipc as .research shows the publish magazines for all types of people.and my magzine covers certain social group.

from the process of constructing the magazine i have learnt cropping resizing changing font filling backgrounds using shapes and cutting out images.i found this fearly easy because i have used photoshop before.

If i were to make another front cover i would you the same techniques like free give aways to engage my audience.i would widen the include more pictures to make it look more interesting and use less text on the front cover because i found that it looked to crowded.but overall i am happy with my magazine as it has the theme associated with a real magazine or genre that i wanted to portray.it contains the forms and conventions of a real music magazine.

evaluation

Music Magazine Evaluation

My music magazine cover is called ‘Base’. We decided to call our magazine cover base because our magazine was and urban one concentrated on Hip Hop and R&B which is associated with Base.
In this evaluation I will be talking about the forms and conventions that I follow and whether it fits into the normal structure of a music magazine. I will also be talking about the target audience and who on the front cover represents what type of people.

In what ways does you music magazine use, develop of challenge forms and
conventions of real music magazine?
In a normal music magazine you will tend to have the cover lines in san serif capital letters that look bold. My magazine font is different which challenges the norm of a real music magazine but however a real music magazine shows the hierarchy of stars which is on my magazine front cover. The main person in who is supposed to be the most important is positioned in the centre of the magazine cover and is larger than all of the other images. The paving is another thing that is similar on usual music magazines. To get the ‘street’ effect I had my background of a brick wall and also the colours gave a really good urban effect. The artist on the front has a hood on with big chains and is in urban sportswear which shows the similarities between my cover and a real cover. The urban effect was also created by the pose of the artist. The artist was looking directly into the camera and had a very strong masculine pose with his shoulders up and a confident pose. The artist also looked cool and arrogant. I didn’t include a main sell line which challenges a real magazine because it doesn’t emphasise the unity and uniformity of a UK Hip Hop or R&B music magazine.
I also have a banner at the bottom of my magazine cover.
My magazine is targeted at young males aged 16-23. This comes across within the colours that I have used and the effect of it.

How did you attract/address you audience?
My music magazine is aimed at a young audience of preferably male artist. In order to attract this type of audience I had to think about the colours and also the information that young male would want to see. I had to use darker colours and also the picture had to match. I had to make the artist on the front look very ghetto with their hood up and they were wearing all black. The main colours of my magazine are black and grey and a bit of blue to make it stand out.

What kind of media institutions might distribute your music magazine cover and why?
The types of people that I would be looking to distribute my magazine are people like news agents and stationeries. I would expect my magazine to be in a shop that is for young males because my magazine would attract them in order to buy it.



What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this magazine front cover?
My music magazine can represent young youth of today from the ages of 14-18. The artist on the front is typical of many boys falling into this category would look like. The colours of cloths they wear would look roughly the same. The poses that they would do would look the same and the representation fits perfectly.

If you were to make another front cover, what do you think you would do differently next time?
To be honest I don’t think I would want to make one again but if I had to I would take more time to plan out exactly what I was doing. I would look at a wide range of urban music magazines and get an idea of what they are like in order to do what most of them do. I would try to include all the important things that music magazines have in common and I would to have more information at the front. I would think of my target audience more in order to get the right colours that match with this target audience. I would probably also have more images on the front cover because I think it world look good. I would have only had 3 main colours but I would have had more. When I was picking the name for the artist I didn’t think about a name carefully before I did that, I would have probably tried to that more instead. Personally I think my cover is really bad so I would have had a new idea and though about my ideas much more before rushing into it.

finished magazine

last lesson i finished the front cover of my magazine.it didnt turn out how i orginally planned it.but i think it appeals to the target audience it was set for.i think i could have neatened the layout abit more but i had run out of tim.but overal im happy with my final piece.

starting over=[

the next lesson i tried to find my work so i could start from where i left off(grrrhhh).but i couldnt find it so i had to start again my ideas and colours for what i wanted my magazine cover had changed.in stead of using the brick wall for my background i chose to use a bright colour(yellow)
so my magazine would stand out i wanted to use this color skeme of blue,yellow pink and green to give my magazine that retro funky look.in that lesson i played around with colour font of text to help produce a rough draft of what i wanted my final magazine cover to look like which i would finish next lesson.

Photoshop Tutorial

In the photoshop tutorial we were given the basics in which we would use 2 create our magazine.We learnt how to crop,rotate, fill ,change and resize, cut out and place images inside and on top of things ,make layers duplicate and many other things which i cant remember right now.
I thought photoshop would be a hard programme to use because Ive tried using it before but once you get the use to the basics you can mess around with things ,i think the main key to photoshop is understanding the layers which can be a little complicating at 1st but once you get the hang of it it becomes a little more easier.
we had decide on wich photos we were going use for our individual magazines cover.i chose a brick wall and the picture of danial.

1. i selected the image
2. which was a plane brick wall so i changes the colour of by playing with brightness saturation untill i was impressed
3. cut out the picture of danial using the quick selection tool
4. placed him on the back ground of the wall sharpened the image of him
5. found a suitable font for the title of the magazine

then the lesson finished

Tutorial

The PhotoShoot=]

THE SHOOT

Location:Off upper street,City and islington sixth form

Costume:Casual wear

Photographers :Gerald,Salone, Me(woooh),ersilla(sorry if i spelt it wrong=])

props:n/a

Day 1 initially we decided to take our photos against a clear brick wall opposite marks and spencers as we thought this would have an interesting background and if needed when photos are taken images against this background would be easily be cut out.I decided to capture images that i could use as backgrounds for the magazine rather than pictures of people so i could play around with effects when it came to creating the magazine.i enjoyed this lesson because i love taking pictures,being in them and directing them.

Ideas for pictures:

• Brick Wall
• Back grounds
• Cars
• Traffic

Day 2 As Gerald and i were not very impressed with some of the photos we took on the first day of the shoot we decided to retake some pictures from my own camera the next day during our lunch break.

LUNCH TIME PIKZ

Ideas and Concepts 4 The Magazine

Brief
To produce the front page of a new music magazine.As a group each person will produce an individual front cover following the same house style using only 1 or two found images and all others being original


Lesson 1
In our first lesson as a group we decided on the name and concepts of our magazine. "BASE" was going to be a predominantly RnB , hiphop based magazine aimed at teens ,young people and those that are interested in the uk' s urban music scene.
The frequency of publication was going to be monthly and the contents of our magazine would consist of interviews ,free give aways , information on music artist, competitions ,posters and fashion tips.


Magazine Name:Base
Genre:Predominantly RnB, Hiphop,Grime and rock
Frequency Publication: Monthly
Target Audience:Teens young people anyone who is interested in uk talent

In this lesson i finished off me magazine cover.

I had to add the finishing touches to it. I added a picture of a famous artist Sway and add info saying exclusive interview of him inside. the main colours of my magazine is blue and back.  My aim for the magazine is to attract young males to be interested in my magazine.

Magazine cover

In todays lesson i started my magazine cover. The first thing i did was insert my title and the colour of it. I also inserted my background which was the wall that i took a picture of.
I had trouble inserting the banner that was to be placed at the bottom of the magazine cover. When i finally got the banner up i had difficulty writing in it, but eventually with a bit of help i managed to do it. I had to think about artist that i wanted to advertise on my magazine cover and wrote their name on the cover.
I used the internet to copy and paste the bar code that is also on my magazine cover.

In This lesson we went to see our uploaded pictues so that we could see what pictures that we wanted to use.
We then had a tutorial on photo shop and the technician taught us how to use it and all the techniques of it. He taught us how to crop pictures, use effects and also write things on to the magazine cover. When we had finished that we started our cover. Me and my group were thinking about what title we should use and what font we wanted to use. We also discussed what pictures everyone would use.
The first thing i did was put on my front cover picture which was the picture i took of my friend.
I decided that on the ext lesson i would sstart my title and add any other information that was going to be placed on to my magazine cover.

Pictures

We went out and took the pictures of what we want tobe on our several covers. We took pictures of different types of walls that we could use as the back ground of our magazines.
My idea of my magazine was to only have one person on the front cover so i ttok a picture of my friend who was wearing all black againt a white wall. I also took a picture of a wall that i am using as my background, this gives a very nice urban effect.

Magazine Plan

Genre- Rock, Hip Hop and RnB

Title of magazine- Base

Frequency- Monthly

Target Audience- Teens 

Artist include- 

Cost of Magazine-£3.50

Photo Shoot- For my magazine i have decided to have three pictures of different people including me.  We will be in clothes which are applying to the young audience. We will be shooting the pictures in an ally way.

Magazine plan

Magazine plan

Title-Base

Genre-Rock, Hip Hop, RnB.

Frequency of publication-Monthly

Cost of magazine- £3.50

Contents of magazine-Top 40, awards (MOBO, MTV, VMA)

Target audience- teens- 30's

The photoshoot- The concepts of the photos was to take it infront of a brick wall. The reason why we thought of this was to connect the audience by having the images taken outside on the streets. On the day of the photoshoot we didn't just take images infront of a wall we also took pictures of the wall by itself and other varius colourful backgrounds so that we can edit ourselves infront of it.

The evaluation

Base magazine the conventions of a music magazine cover by having the bar code and the price of the issue so that its buyable to the audience, it has a main image in the centre with eye contact being made to the camera to draw and to attract the audience. Cover lines with right hand justification, a masthead in big font and to the left hand side so that the first letters can be read if the magazine is overlapped by other magazines on a shelf. And a strapline of the magazines website, so that the audience can visit the magazines wewebsite for more information. The title of the magazine cover BASE, appeals to everyone who listens to music. The reason why the title is called BASE is because when music is turned up very loud it has base.

My music magazine cover represents certain social groups by having quite a range of different styles of music information from, rock to hip hop, or a comparison from old skool the 80's to new skool the millenium. It also covers certain social groups by having a tennage female on the front cover of the magazine, which is also to make the magazine appeal to gairls and not just boys.

The audience of my music magazine cover would be from teens plus. This is because it covers quite a range of artists that apppeal to a different audience artists such as...  

Kings of Leon,who appeal to mainly teen boys and up.

Maroon 5, whose ,main target audience is teen girls and women over 20.

Danity Kane who mainly appeal to teen girls, women and some boys.

 

The script who appeals to older teens to mid 20's male and female.

It's also aimed at a big audience becuase it gets more people buying the magazine which will make it one the best selling magazines. It appeals to teenagers by having a young person on the magazine cover and it appeals to the 20's and over by comparing old songs and collaberations with new ones which shows how music has evolved over the time.

I have learnt about constructing this magazine front cover by using technology to edit a normal photo and turning it into a magazine front cover. Using Photoshop helps a lot to change a photo taken from a digital camera then saved onto the computer to make it look like a music magazine front cover. I got told first how to use Photoshop and how to change varius parts of the image cloning a certain part of the image and making it appear twice. This also can be used, for example, to cover writing on a shirt as it may say something that is not relevant to the magazine cover. Eventhough i did get help a few times and shown how to use it before after a while i did get the hang of it, and i started to add on all the cover lines and the bar code and adding more colour to cover lines and changing the font of it.

If i had the chance to make another front cover i would wear darker clothes and do a more of a rock issue instead. The reason why i would have darker clothes is so that it can represent a more of a rock image than to have a bage dress on which represents more of a pop magazine to the audience. To improve the Base magazine even more as an overall is to have the group agree more and to decide what we want our magazine covers to look very similar than having varius things that dont match when you are comparing all four magazines.

Magazine =]

Magazine plan

Genre - rock hiphop & rnb
Title - B@SE
Frequency - Monthly

Target audience - Teens to Early 30s
Cost of magazine - £3.50


Context Inside Magazine

Mobo awards, mtv awards
Interviews
old skool verses new skool
Top 40
Feature artists

Photo shoot

for the photo shoot we are going on the main high street near our college, as were are doing a rock/rnb magazine we are looking for a background that would be authentic to our the magazine. We tried using brick walls, shutters, poster walls and traffic backgrounds but the best one was the brick background as it gave the feel of both genres of music. The clothes for the photo shoot were casual as if we over done the clothes to much the reason for the photo shoot would have been lost. We didn’t use any props as we didn’t think they would be suitable for the style of magazine we are doing

Lesson

In lesson we have been working on the computers to put our magazines together. We used Photoshop to complete the cover after having a tutorial on how to use the software. In lessons we also planned how we wanted our magazine to look by drawing them on to a3 paper. We also dod a written plan


Evaluation

In what ways does your magazine use, develop or challenge forms and convections or a real music magazine?

My magazine is very similar to a real magazine in which it uses bright colours to attract people’s attention to the magazine. It also looks although it could be on a magazine stand due to the picture complimenting the name and style of the magazine. It also covers simular issues article and interviews to challenge a real magazine as it simular to others theres no reason why you wouldnt want to read it.

How does your music magazine cover represent certain social groups?

My magazine cover represents a younger group of people into hip hop and rnb music as the picture on the cover looks as if they could be a rnb collaboration which would appeal to younger ages through to 20's and possibly 30's. The picture on the cover also represents more of a hiphop vibe although it is also a rock magazine from issue to issue the cover will vary the different genres.

What kind of media institution might distribute your magazine cover and why?

I think my magazine would be distrubuted in corner shops, music stores, grocery stores e.g Asda/Tesco and Recording studios. As music magazines can be enjoyed by all. Also people in the music buiness may find it useful to find new artist or look at different noticifactions on bands that are touring, gigs and up and coming new artists.

Who would be the audience for your music magazine cover?

The audience for my front cover is for anybody who enjoys music’s as you cant stereo type who listens to which music as many people spread they’re music choices over a many different genres. As the way they feel, if they’re out or just want some easy listening music can contribute what you feel like listening to. Although if i did have to stereo type a group for my magazine i would say it would be more suited for young adults through to middle aged people as in the issue i feature music from the 80's and features artists such as Run DMC and Aerosmith.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience by using bright colors that contrast the dark clothes, so its more noticeable when your looking at the magazine stand. I also used issues that affect young people of today like an addressing street crime and linking it with hip-hop artists so people can relate to them and feel as though they are getting to know the artists.

What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing the magazine front cover?

From the process of making the magazine cover i have leant how to use Photoshop, also that technology can be quite hard to use when your trying to do something perscific. I also learnt how to take a picture and be able to cut out the bit you want to use, i have used this on my cover in the bottom right hand corner.

If you were to make another front cover what do you think you would do differently next time?

If i was making another front cover i would take more time to plan what i wanted as i rushed into making my currant front cover and it isnt exactly how i wanted it. I would also plan my photoshoot better and do it outside of school so i could capture exactly as i had firstly wanted it. I would also research more magazines and their colour schemes and layouts as i took ages to decied on one and it wasnt how i pictured it. Although i would like to make changes to my front cover i am happy with how it looks i as i feel it forfills the brief.

Ursula Thompson.