evaluation

Evaluation
Music Magazine
Michaela Marson


My magazine has the conventions of normal magazines and music magazines. Such as a mast head placed at the top of the magazine, a main image of a person looking directly at the camera, in medium close up. Subheadings around the side and a bar code. I chose to call my magazine “a-list playlist “ to signify that my music magazine is for high status acts. Its in white and red to signify the red carpet and also the Christmas theme.
The conventions of my contents page are the head title of my magazine and contents, Also I have sorted the pages of my magazine into section’s as most magazines do. My contents page also has a main image of a “famous” act in medium long shot. Its not in chronological order because of the different sections I have but in the sections they are in chronological order.
My magazine develops the conventions of normal music magazines because I have all the right conventions and I have developed it by adding a unique style by mixing to genre’s in one. This will attract a wider audience of people. My magazine also challenges conventions by doing this style because music magazines are either mainstream or alternative. The pictures I have taken of Laura challenge stereotypical females and therefore challenge the conventions of normal magazines. I found in my research that a captivating dominant picture is key to a good magazine. I therefore used this idea by perceiving Laura as a “rebellious” hard working character
The magazine genre I have chosen for my magazine is a mainstream/ slightly alternative by the mise-en-scene of colours and image used. Such as the “raised eyebrow”. This is because the face of music is changing from the mainstream of “rnb” and dance dominating the charts to more indie bands coming into the face of mainstream music. The mise-en-scene of my magazine interprets this. Therefore I believe my magazine is representing of the social change the music industry is undergoing. I have applied my magazine to both social music groups by having the conventions of a mainstream new artist with a twist. On the front cover I have a stereotypical mainstream act with characteristics of an alternative view. She has her eyebrow raised on the front cover, this is to dominate the front cover and catch the viewers eye. In the background there is a drum set. This is to signify an alternative band, however the colours are bright and upbeat to appeal the a mainstream audience. The colour scheme of the writing is red and whites, this is because it’s a Christmas month magazine.
My magazine represents a variety of mixed styles of music. My magazine is for people aged around 15-25, It offers music for both mainstream and alternative for those who don’t stick to one particular style of music. Although it doesn’t have a huge variety of choice. The colour scheme throughout my magazine is mainly red because the issue is a Christmas issue.
I have attracted my audience by using my front cover to catch their eye. The main picture I have used is of Laura Marris (the new rising star in the magazine) and I have made her eyebrow raised to signify secrets to be read in the magazine. On my first draft of the front cover my background was a plain yellow background. I decided this didn’t look much like a proper magazine at all so I took some more photo’s out of focus of a background of a “Studio”. This made the background look more professional.
However I wasn’t pleased with the colour, I thought my background looked to dark for the target audience I was aiming for. I then changed to colour and made it more bright. I ended up making it to bright and had to readjust this to a less bright colour. On my original title, the “A-list” had a white and black overlay. This was to make it look like a camera flash. The “playlist” was in red to signify the carpet but also a Christmas theme. However I had to change my title on the “A-list” because the title became unnoticeable with the change of background.
My contents page is conventional of a normal contents page, I have long shot of Laura Marris at the side as she is featured in my magazine & will be on my double page spread. I went through a long process of changing my contents page. At first I had a medium close up of Laura Marris & not much content of page numbers, I printed this copy out & realised that the writing was to big and I didn’t like the layout of the picture with the page listings. I then changed the way round and photo of the photo & listings. I also added a lot more pages to make it look believable. I added a “featuring” bar at the bottom to address my audience with more information about the content of my magazine. II also added “Florence and the machine” stamp and a picture of an iPod relevant to the pages.
My double page spread Attracts the audience with the “exclusive interview” and colourful words. At first I started with not a lot of content again but I then realised after re looking at my research and other double page spreads, that a more content was needed. I have printed a copy out in A4 but the intention was to be A3 and able to fold it over into a magazine. I have used a medium shot of Laura laughing into her hands, This is to show a fun loving action shot of Laura. The intention behind it was to attract the reader to read the article as it looks as if she’s laughing at the content. I have also used another picture of Laura stood in a medium long shot at the right hand side looking dominantly at the camera. Her choice of outfit is a grey waste coat with a long white top and black bottoms. This was to make her look a strong business type woman, I then added the quite “ I wont take no for an answer” this is because it challenges all stereotypical view on females as house wives. Push over’s. I have used the colour red as this colour id being used throughout the magazine. The colour yellow was used to brighten up the page.
I would think that the type of media institution that would distribute my magazine would be the type that produce NME which is an alternative magazine, but also Q magazine which is slightly more mainstream. This is because my magazine has a mixed element of mainstream and alternative.
Over the course of producing my product I have learnt a great deal about the technologies involved. Firstly I realised that you have to take a lot of photo’s before finding the right one that works, and even then you may have to go back and retake. Also I have learnt a lot about Photoshop and different tools that enable different looks. For example when I first applied my photo’s the edges were extremely sharp, I then discovered an out of focus tool that I applied to the edges of the photo, this made the photo fit in to the background, particularly with the front cover. Also how to use different layers, cut photo’s out & add them on.
Since the first preliminary task I think my planning research and product has improved. The contents page I used for the preliminary task I don’t think looked any were near the standard my contents page for my music magazine now looks. If I was to do this again I would use my time management more wisely however I have spent a lot of time on my magazine I would have put a little more time on analysing double page spreads.
I have attached a questionnaire to gain audience feedback.