Music Magazine: Front Cover

Music Magazine: Contents Page

Music Magazine: Double Page Spread

Pre-lim Cover Page

Pre-lim Contents Page

Evaluation Question 7

Research and Planning

My planning skills have more than improved since I began. At first, I may have took no more than 10 minutes to draft an idea for what I was going to set out to do. Now I put in far much time and thinking, taking things like mise en scene and props into account before taking my shot. (As seen when I replaced my front page actor). In my prelim task, my shot was so straight forward that you can tell I had put no effort into the shot. Whereas in my music magazine shots, there are a variety of poses, clothing and a microphone prop. The extra thought put into the shot reflects on the end product.

Photoshop

Photoshop allowed me to get more advanced knowledge not only editing shots, but also taking them. When I had retook my shots, I took into account how they were going to be presented on my already finished front page. I adjusted not only the actor, but also the lighting so that the shot was easier to edit around with in photoshop.

Time Management

My time management has also greatly improved, my prelim task was rushed, almost last minute and the date in which I had planned to take the shots got pushed back further and further until I realised I had very little time to edit the actual front page / contents page. In my music magazine task however, time management was the key to ensuring my product was finalised and I was happy with the result.

Prelim vs. Magazine

My prelim task is greatly flawed and shows through the lack of any sort of planning or management, the end result of it was very basic, plain and straight forward, there was nothing particularly inspiring about it what so ever. My final product, the music magazine on the other hand sticks to conventions whilst including original ideas which shows the thought behind the magazine pages.

Evaluation Question 6

What Have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Blogger

Blogger is a website I have never heard of before. It allows users to create their own online blog, making posts to its followers that may include pictures or text. I feel like blogger was insanely important in getting my work finished, as the site is great for recording and sharing ones progress. Looking back at my blogs, I can see that there is much improvement made.

Photoshop

Photoshop is a very advanced piece of software which I had no skill in prior to starting my project. All the way from my pre-lim task, I have learnt so much about this app: how to manipulate layering, text editing, guidelines, proportions etc. There is still much to learn but the amount of information and techniques I have processed is astounding.

Slideshare

Slide share, much like blogger, is a website which I had never used previously. Throughout my media work, I have discovered slide share to be a most valuable tool in checking on my progress and approaches to questions and conventions of my magazine. Slide share offers me other inputs of the same topic which allow me to take notes and slowly make my work more conventional.

Youtube

Youtube, being the largest video streaming platform as of right now. I was very familiar with it. However, I learnt of a whole media-related community on the site, where people post videos on topics related to my coursework and where I was able to fetch other peoples ideas and learn a lot of new things regarding my subject.

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 4

Alex

Alex is 24 years old, he lives in Birkenhead town. His clothes consist of fairly urban, he wears beanies and has tattoos. His style is consistently informal and shows a lack of care for people’s look on him

He enjoys going out with his friends and drinking and attending festivals on weekends, he is very up to date with music and his favourite taste is hip hop and R&B. The festivals he likes to attend are Huddersfield and Shambala.

He enjoys the latest films, often the biggest titles. He loves action and face-paced films like Suicide Squad and White House Down. He often watches the films on cinematic release at his local cinema, and buying them later on blu-ray / DVD too add to his collection.

As far as TV Shows go, Alex likes comedy shows like Family Guy, South Park and Friends. His favourite channels are Comedy Central and NBC.

Alex would listen to the hottest tracks that are live right now, his music taste is often influenced by what is played on the radio and what is the top tracks.  I think that my magazine would appeal to Alex because he is very urban and follows the artists which are at the top of the charts. In the magazine that I drafted, the artist which I featured is a Number 1. On the most played, which would appeal to Alex’s taste.

Sarah

Sarah is 26, coming on 27. She lives within the suburbs of Liverpool. Her fashion taste is very bright and vibrant, she likes to be noticed with the clothes that she wears, and her wardrobe consists of plenty of unconventional festival type clothes.

She enjoys going to parties with her friends, and attending anywhere that has good music playing loud. When she is not partying, she enjoys spending her time making art, which she will post online to her social media following.

She shops mainly online, as the internet takes up the majority of her free time, her clothing is from festivals which she attends and from eBay sellers, she keeps a hippy style as it is most bright and attracts attention.

She enjoys primarily romance films like Bridget Jones, Me Before You and Love, Rosie. She mainly streams her films online at places like Netflix or Hulu. She enjoys Drama TV shows, like Pretty Little Liars and How To Get Away With Murder and similar to her preferred films she streams them online.

Her favourite streaming platform is Netflix, but does use others like Hulu and Amazon Prime.

I think that my magazine would appeal to Sarah because it has the most urban music which would appeal to a younger generation, the music is also mostly played at parties or festivals as it keeps a very hyped up vibe throughout.

Evaluation Question 3

What is a media institution?

A media conglomerate, or media group is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises. For example, TV, radio, motion pictures or in my case, magazine publishing.

Who distributes my existing style model?

Vibe magazine is my style model and it’s media company is Eldridge Industries. Vibe’s first issue that I can find dates all the way back too January 1998. The magazine is published in English and is edited by Datwon Thomas. There were formally 6 other editors prior to Mr. Thomas. The magazine is based in the US in New York City.

Other big magazine institutions.

IPC Media is one of the UK’s leading consumer magazine and publishers, with a large portfolio selling hundreds of millions of copies each year. However, as of 2014, the company has been renamed too Time Inc UK. Time Inc was founded in 1968 – 49 years ago. As of now, it has 17 Lifestyle publishing divisions, 15 Luxury publishing divisions and 31 Specialist publishing divisions.

What company would I like to distribute my magazine and why?

I’d like Bauer Media too publish my magazine as they currently do not run any contemporary R&B / hip hop magazine. They mainly distribute sport magazines which include fishing, cars and bikes. With a few exceptions of music related magazines like Kerrang and Q. I believe that introducing a new genre of music magazine to their list of brands would be beneficial to Bauer and my magazine. The music magazines that they do own, often have their own sites and radio like ‘Q’. This would be most beneficial for my Hourglass Magazine as they will be able to reach a larger audience over the internet and radio.

Expanding my product.

I believe that the genre of my magazine, R&B is very urban and modern. Because of this, it is likely the appeal to a younger generation of  18 – 30 year olds. I am also aware that this age range is very up to date with technology and social media. Because of this, I would be able to expand my product beyond a magazine brand and onto the social media platforms such as twitter and Facebook. This would be beneficial to reaching as many people as possible.

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Questions

I have 7 evaluation questions in total to complete, I aim to finish these before the end of next month (February) ready to be posted on my blog. By sticking to time and planning, I hope to complete each one and have it posted every so few days so that come end of February my questions have been completed

Contents Page

Here is my contents page. I have closely examined another Vibe Magazine Contents Page and based mine off it. I implemented such features like;

• Bolding of keywords
• Way of laying out numbers
• 'Fashion' tab with '>'
• 'Features' Sub-heading above contents
• Magazine Logo found in background

Overall, I am pleased with the result of my contents page and do believe I have used a healthy amount of Vibe Contents Page conventions.

Double Page Spread Changes

I have changed my double page spread, adding actor background story & relating to a hit single. Aswell as a Q&A which I found used on another Vibe music magazine double page-spread that featured kendrick lamar. I also have stuck closely with the guidelines and made sure everything is aligned.

Front Cover Image Changed

I decided to change my front page actor as it did not match the one on the other pages. I also like this one better as it gives off much more of a mood. The actor looks serious, and has his hood up; which matches the conventions off a typical rapper.

Contents Page Guidelines

I have applied the same guidelines to my contents page so that I do not put any text or other design in an area which would be unseen in the final print.

Front Page Guidelines

I have added guidelines onto my front page and revamped some of the text sizes and positioning to ensure that it does not get cut off during the printing process

Double Page Spread Guidelines

On my double page spread, I have applied guidelines which give me a indication on where the page will be cut during printing, this is important because I do not want the contents of my page to be damaged. By applying these guidelines, I have also slightly revamped the position of some text including the HG logo.

Music Magazine : Revision

I have revised my Cover Page, Contents Page and my Double-Page Spread and referred their designs very closely to a specific example model, taken from the magazine I have chose 'Vibe'. For example,
Contents Page
My whole contents page no. list, has been completely reworked, giving it a style more similar to that of my style models. I gave it varying text style (bold, regular, thin etc), I also aligned the text to the left side of the screen rather than having it centred. As well as adding other minor changes which reflect I have been referring to my style model.
Double-page spread
My double page spread has suffered the least amount of changes, as when designing it, I already referred closely to my style model. However, I did clean up the work, making the HG logo larger to fill empty wasted space and change several text effects to make the writing more clear.
Front Page
As for my front page, there are several conventions I need to change, such as the waste of space. To get rid of it, I will make my text larger. Overall, I am relatively pleased with the outcome of my front page and will continue to add minor updates to make sure it has as many of the conventions I require.

Music Magazine: DPS Draft

Here is a comparison of the work I made, and the work I based it off. At the same time, I applied my house style of the shades of blue and my logo "HG" which I believe came out very well.

Music Magazine DPS

Here is a style model of a double page spread that I intend to base mine of. I think this could work well as I could use my 'HG' logo in place where the 'WK'.

Music Magazine - Contents Page

Here is a scrap edit of my contents page. I have applied some style model conventions such as;

• The messy display of text found in Vibe Magazine's contents
• The varying style of text, some smaller, some bold.
• Logo in the background behind page's actor. 

Frontpage Futher Drafting

Here is the extended draft result of my magazine's front page. Overall, I am pleased with the outcome and believe I have stuck to conventions reasonably. For example;

• The sub headings along the side of the magazine alternate in colour
• A large heading 'Giforen' to catch a readers eye for fans of the 'artist'
• I have applied a appropriate price 
• I have applied a appropriate barcode
• I have established a logo that I intend to use for the other pages.

Though this is the final result, I may make other subtle changes to the magazine's front page for various reasons.

I must remember to change the sizes of the masthead and actor name. As well as look further into getting a new actor for this cover

Music Magazine Front Page & Models

This is the scrap front page I have made. I now intend to apply some of the concepts found from my style model onto the front page. This is so that I can hope the cover page will be able to resemble some sort of professionalism, which is inspired by the Vibe Magazine Style Models I have chose.