Celebrity Influences

Throughout my research and process, I used two main celebrities to influence my work.

Florence Welch (Florence + the Machine) and Amy Winehouse

Using Welch's unique fashion style and Winehouse's make-up and hair-do's I was able to use this as a guidline and inspiration for my model's photos.

You can see that I've used similar poses, clothing and hairstyles for my photos. 

I chose these two particular artists as influences for my media, as they both fall under the same genre of an Indie Alternative for their music and style.

The colours of clothing I also used reflected these models, with Winehouse wearing black and Welch consistently wearing a few brighter and bolder colours. The contrast of the two colours worked well in my piece.

The hairstyles of my model's both reflect these two influences, with their large and vibrant hair.

EVALUATION QUESTION 7

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


 Since beginning my media product by starting with my Preliminary task, I feel as though I have improved massively with my use of photoshop and editing to prove this. As you can see from both my front page and contents, the use of colours, fonts, and photos have improved immensely and is noticeable with my music magazine task.

Prezi/Mind Map to show my evaluation on both magazines

EVALUATION QUESTION 6

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

Using 'Windows Live Movie Maker' I was able to produce a video containing all the products and programmes I used to produce my media project.

EVALUATION QUESTION 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Using magazines such as Q and NME, I took ideas from both front covers and contents page for my own personal use for my magazine. I also looked at a specific front cover from a Rolling Stone issue with Amy Winehouse on the front cover for font ideas.

You can see from my final pieces, that I used a lot of Q's and NME's work to help me establish a target audience.

Using similar fonts, colours, layouts and picture styles, I was able to use these different ideas and techniques to create my own product.

Using my original photos aswell, I tried to create an Indie effect with their style of clothing, pose, hairstyle etc.

The pictures represent the genre of Indie kids, which is similar to NME magazine.

The style of clothing is more presentable and neat, which resembles Q's fashion statements, such as the Lady Gaga issue.

Prezi 1

Prezi 2

Double Page Spread Research

Q's article on Lady Gaga immediately caught my attention. The layout of not only the photo, but the article itself was so neat and presented well. I liked the way the main photo takes over one whole page, and how there is a header and footer on the top and bottom of the page to indicate who the article is about, and what the page number is. The use of a drops cap before each paragraph also caught my attention, as it indicated when a paragraph ended and when another started.

The Florence + The Machine NME double-page spread from 2009 again got my attentions. Like Q, the main picture takes up half of the double-page spread layout, therefore gaining the readers attention immediately. The use of drop caps in a different font compared to the rest of the text made it clear where the article started. And the photo represented what genre of music Florence Welch was apart of, due to her clothing, posture, and hairstyle.

The NME article of Lily Allen in the early stages of her career represented her attitud at the time. The posture, fashion, and article layout showed her teenage naive ways and abnoxious attitude. The way the pull quote takes up half of the page I didn't really like, but how the layout was, with the blck background to emphasis the quote I liked the idea of. The large drops cap aswell also kept with the theme of the article. The bold colours made the whole article stand out, compared to Lady Gaga's and Florence Welch's.

Double Page Spread Analysis

 

 

Contents Construction

To start off my contents page, I basically set out where I wanted what pictures to go where.

I used the two models on my front cover as my main photo, and another photo I took of another model for another article.

I also re-used my front cover on my contents page to advertise subscription of my magazine.

I used a basic white background, so it was easier to edit on and didn't clash with the other colours I wanted to use, plus a black background seemed tacky.

I started placing the background for my headers on my contents next.

This broke down what I wanted to go where a little bit easier for myself when I came to including more text etc.

I used the same font for the Iconic on my contents as I did on my front cover, to keep the style and theme going throughout.

I also kept the whole black, red, and white theme as well as similar or same fonts.

Next, I included a bit more text.

Using the text tool on photoshop CS4, I was able to position where I wanted the text and how wide I wanted the text box to be etc.

I stuck with a white theme for the font colour for the Band Index and headers, as white on both red and black background stood out more than any other colour would.

The band index to me was a good feature to include on my contents. It shows what bands are included in the magazine and what type of genre the magazine is going for. 

The next step was to put in some writing for the articles etc.
For each article page number, I gave a brief description below of what that page was about. Using a different font, the description isn't as highlighted as the main attraction, which is the title.

I got the idea of an 'Artist Highlight' from Q Magazine. Giving Bloc Party a section on my contents page highlighted the genre of my magazine too.

I used the page numbers in a different font again, and colour, to highlight them and make them noticeable for readers.

FINISHING PRODUCT:
To complete my contents page, I added in the subscribe section by highlighting the important factors, such as the website, to grab the readers attention.

I also included an Editor's Comment in my contents page, to give the magazine a friendly and warm feel to it.

I also added a big 'SUBSCRIBE' to the small photo in the left hand corner, to notify to a reader that the magazine does a subscription.

EVALUATION QUESTION 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

When creating my magazine, my first initial idea was who will buy it? What group of people are going to be interested in what I put on my front cover?
With the help of my iTunes, I was able to pick out some bands from the same genre and put them together to finally get some suitable bands for my front cover. The most common genre in my iTunes was 'Indie Alternative'.


If you google an indie kid, you get the definition:
Indie Kids are the type of people who listen to non-recogniseable bands, with the occasional mainstream one. Indie boys tend to wear rolled up jeans with vintage jumpers, and style wavy hair with of course a trademark fringe. Indie girls on the other hand usually have natural like hair, with either a bold fringe or no fringe, wear skirts and shorts a lot, with big over-sized tees, vests and jumpers, usually tucked in, with socks and vans, brogues, creepers etc. 


The type of magazine I'd associate with indie kids would be mainly NME. NME includes different bands which aren't as well known as other bands. 


Typical indie kids:

Obviously, I want my media product to be popular, so I want the age range to be between 15-25. So that if you're a teenager, on a bus, or train, or whatever type of public transport you may be on, and you see a 18 year old boy reading 'Iconic' magazine, you think 'yeah I want to read that issue too!' Whereas, if you see an old 50 year old woman reading it, you tend to pretend you haven't heard of the name....Which isn't the outcome I'm looking for.


Typical places for an Indie Kid to shop would be:

• Urban Outfitters
• Beyond Retro
• Topshop (but be careful...because Topshop is too 'mainstream' for some people)
• and basically any cheap charity shop near where you live which sells an old woman or man's unwanted clothing...

TV shows such as skins can be associated with Indie Kids. Their wild lifestyle and unusual behaviour can be seen as rebellious. Their clothing is different and their hair is usually a different colour or style. Indie Kids like to think the parties they go to can be compared to Skins..but let's face it, Skins is a TV show, keep dreaming kids. 

Musical tastes an Indie Kid would listen to could vary from a band you have no idea about, a band who's just coming onto to scene, or a well-known band.

You've got the likes of The Klaxons, Florence + The Machine, The Libertines, Two Door Cinema Club, Arctic Monkeys etc.. on the list of Indie Kid's favourite bands.

Indie Kids also like to listen to old bands, such as Nirvana or Oasis, bands that are still iconic but not about any more. 

The way I want my magazine to be, is basically with including all the stuff Indie Kids will be interested in. With having the likes of Foo Fighters, summer festivals and Arctic Monkeys on my front page, I'm hoping this fits in with the criteria of what they want.

EVALUATION QUESTION 3

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

The magazine industry in the UK is one of the biggest selling industries the UK has. Some circulation figures for music magazines are below:

• The Fly free ( Channelfly Enterprises Ltd ) : 100,574 ; -0.4%
• Mojo ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 87,555 ; -7.5%
• Q ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 77,522 ; -12.1%
• Classic Rock ( Future Publishing Ltd ) : 62,354 ; -7.9%
• Uncut ( IPC Media Ltd ) : 62,305 ; -14.2%
• The Stool Pigeon free ( Junko Partners Publishing ) : 53,676 ; N/A
• Properganda free ( Proper Music Distribution ) : 46,542 ; N/A
• Kerrang! ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 42,077 ; -2.1%
• DIY Magazine free ( RWD Creative Media Limited ) : 36,801 ; N/A
• Metal Hammer ( Future Publishing Ltd ) : 35,259 ; -15.7%
• New Musical Express ( IPC Media Ltd ) : 27,650 ; -14.0%

Two main publishers for music magazines are IPC Media and Bauer Media. IPC Media publishes NME magazine, whereas Bauer publishes Q Magazine, both of which are two of the top selling music magazines. 

Throughout my blog, I have compared my music magazine to mainly NME and Q, but coming down to what institution I would want to publish my blog, I would go for IPC Media.

My magazine compared to NME is different, but bares some similarities. I've used the same basic colours on my magazine, as NME do on theirs, (red white and black). The use of a badge in the corner to advertise something inside the magazine too is similar. I used NME too for font ideas.

However, the increasing number of magazine buyers tend to nowadays use the internet for their musical updates on news, gigs, concerts, festivals etc.. Therefore, the music magazine business is slowly decreasing, but not so much that there would be no business for them.

Front Page Analysis

 

I used NME's cover of Jamie T and Rolling Stone's cover of Amy Winehouse as a sort of guide for my front cover, and took most of my ideas for what to put on my cover from both of these. My favourite out of the two was the Amy Winehouse issue, as the image and colour scheme went well together. Unlike Rolling Stone, NME tends to stick to the same colour scheme of red, black and white.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
























I took two separate photos from two different magazines to achieve my final photo for my magazine. The first photo is of Billie-Joel from Greenday, and the second is of Florence Welch from Florence + The Machine
.
Both bands do have different genres of music, Florence + The Machine are a more alternative indie rock genre, whereas Greenday are a rock band.

From both of the photos I put them together and created one which suited my genre for my magazine, which was indie rock. The pose I chose was considered more carefully and adapted to. The screaming affect in my opinion was a lot different than the original I found for it. 

The posture of both photos are the same, both standing up and have similar hand gestures. I thought the body posture for my magazine represent indie rock more than Florence's, as you can actually see my model's faces and what expressions they are pulling, unlike hers.

The lighting used for all photos is artificial lighting. With the artificial lighting I was able to edit out any blemishes and red eyes from my photo.

The angle shot of my photo compared to the NME  magazine is different. The shot of Billie-Joel is looking down on him, whereas my photo is directly in front of my models.

The costumes of my models represent an indie rock genre, as they are different colours and unusual patterns, which is what a typical British Indie would wear. Bold patterns, light blouses, different materials etc. The clothes Florence Welch is wearing can only be viewed from the shoulders up. But from what I can see, she is wearing an unusual sequin dress made of different colours, which again fits the Indie criteria.

No props for each photo are used, just hand gestures and facial expressions.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1

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

The music industry is probably one of the most largest and ongoing businesses the UK has seen. The different genres and styles gives a variation of magazines to be published. From Kerrang!'s metal rock  to NME's alternative indie genre, the music magazine industry continues to exceed in the marketing business.

The problems music magazines now face is the decreasing number of copies now being bought. The use of internet and websites now give readers a reason to not go out and buy a magazine.
Recent circulation figures of current music magazines state so:

Music (rock) circulation figures for the first half of 2011:
Title; publisher; average sale; change year on year

• The Fly free ( Channelfly Enterprises Ltd ) : 100,574 ; -0.4%
• Mojo ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 87,555 ; -7.5%
• Q ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 77,522 ; -12.1%
• Classic Rock ( Future Publishing Ltd ) : 62,354 ; -7.9%
• Uncut ( IPC Media Ltd ) : 62,305 ; -14.2%
• The Stool Pigeon free ( Junko Partners Publishing ) : 53,676 ; N/A
• Properganda free ( Proper Music Distribution ) : 46,542 ; N/A
• Kerrang! ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 42,077 ; -2.1%
• DIY Magazine free ( RWD Creative Media Limited ) : 36,801 ; N/A
• Metal Hammer ( Future Publishing Ltd ) : 35,259 ; -15.7%
• New Musical Express ( IPC Media Ltd ) : 27,650 ; -14.0%
• Hot Press ( Osnovina Ltd ) : 17,688 ; -0.2%

 Some elements for my music magazine were ideas taken from magazines such as NME and Q. The use of only 3 colours, including the colour red, was taken from NME magazine front covers. The body gestures and picture however was a slightly adapted idea from one of Q's past front cover. 

The 'Indie' genre of my magazine is presented through the bands included on the magazine, and the fashion of the models.

Link to previous post on front page analysis

The music genre I chose for my magazine was 'alternative indie'.

To achieve the genre, I had to think about what pose I wanted the models to do, and what clothes they had to wear.

My final picture consisted of a different pose, with similar coloured clothes. 

The pose I chose would be considered alternative and different.

Link to

Link to previous blog post on contents analysis

 Link to previous post on Double-Page Spread Analysis

My target audience for my magazine is anyone who is into alternative and indie music. Mainly I want people from the ages of 17-25 to read the magazine, as it would include things which interest them more than anyone else of another age. Although, anyone who is interested in this genre of music is who I am mainly aiming my magazine at.

Contents Page Analysis

The idea for my main article picture on my contents page was taken from the July 2010 issue of Q Magazine. The picture which includes Matt Bellamy and Bono facing each other showed power. I took this idea and adapted to it, being more fun and not so serious.

Whilst analysing Kerrang!'s contents page, I saw at the bottom of the page that there was a little note from the editor. I liked this idea as it gave the magazine a friendly atmosphere, and that the editors and people who work for Kerrang! thought about what their readers wanted. This idea I took for my own magazine. 

From NME magazine, to navigate someone to a certain part of the magazine, they used columns. This not only was a neat way in how to organise it, but looked professional too. I used this idea but changed the font and backdrop colour to suit the consistent style and colours used for my magazine.

The enlarged page numbers on the main picture for my contents also was a good idea. By enhancing the size and using a drop shadow for the number, it immediately gets the readers attention and directs them to that page, which is the idea of the number.

I took the idea of a 'Band Index' from NME contents page. The use of the band names in a small column on the side was not only relatively small but noticeable and gave a navigation for the magazine. The list of bands also gave you an idea of what genre the magazine was, due to what bands were included in the magazine. I used this idea for my own contents page but didn't include page numbers, just names of what bands were included in my magazine.

Double Page Spread Final

Contents Page Research

 The contents for Kerrang! gave me some ideas for my contents page. The headers such a 'News' and 'K! Quiz' with a highlighted background gave me a similar idea for my contents page, to put them into sections with headers. The main picture at the top of Slash caught my attention immediately and therefore I knew the main story was about that. The layout of the contents page definitely gave me some ideas for my own contents page, but the colour scheme with the black, yellow and white in my opinion didn't go well. The editor's comment on the side was a good touch to it, and the picture to go with it showed an interest for the readers.

 Immediately I liked the 'band index' on the NME contents page, and the 'This Week' heading too, so I took ideas from this for my contents page. Again, the same as Kerrang! the sub-titles had a back colour against the title, and was set into columns. The block writing with a bold background got my attention quickly as the colours went well together, showing that the layout and ideas of the contents page came together well. The subscribe column at the bottom of the contents used a different colour, (yellow), so it came across as noticeable for the readers. This again attracted my attention therefore fulfilling it's purpose.

The main picture on the contents caught my attention, along with the large and identifiable page number to the side of it. This is where I got the idea for my page numbers. The idea of the main photo in the corner to me was a good idea for my contents page too. The attraction to the picture immediately made me turn to the page the picture was from, which was the affect I wanted for my contents page to have. I also liked the way underneath each mini title that there was a small description of what was on this page, which gave it a small summary. Again, I took this idea for my contents page.








The main contents picture I really liked the idea of. Matt Bellamy and Bono's pose caught my eye. The way they are facing eachother showed a power they both had, so I took this idea and adapted from it. I really like how Q lay out their contents page, with the banner at the top identifying the magazine name and the headers for what section of the contents is what.