The front cover.
The style of my magazine is similar to that of existing indie music magazines. The use of a simple color scheme: black, white and blue; the use of a model with a distinctive style and attitude; and also the use of grungy looking fonts and images is commonly used throughout this style of music magazine. Comparing my magazine with that of NME magazine shows these factors.
I chose my model carefully. His ability to model strong, confident poses was a crucial aspect that I wanted for the cover of my magazine. I believe that the use of a good model on the cover can greatly improve the sales of magazines. I asked him to wear an outfit which suited the color scheme: black, white and blue. I believe that his outfit works perfectly on the cover – it doesn’t clash with the font or distract the reader from other more important aspects of the magazine, like the titles of the articles.
I kept the same color scheme throughout my magazine, which is a common factor of indie music magazines, e.g. Q magazine…
Setting/Location.
To create a white background for the cover I used our college studio. The white background enabled the image to be focused entirely on the model himself.
Another setting I used was an outdoor setting, located around college.
I believe that this setting adds to the grungy, indie style of my magazine.
Another location is that of the Winbalm concert. The instruments in the background clearly show examples of the type of music that is being represented by my magazine.
This is similar to other magazines, who show photographs from various gigs throughout their magazine to emphasise the type of music they are representing, e.g...
The title font.
The font I used to create the title of my magazine is an important aspect of my final product. I believe it sets the style of the magazine. I found this font, Capture It 2, on www.dafont.com.
It sets a grungy, yet confident atmosphere to the magazine. It suits the typical indie music genre well. Changing the colour of the font actually changed the black box around the letters, so I used Photoshop to make the actual letters a blue colour.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
I believe that my magazine represents the fans of Indie music. The models, articles and overall style of the magazine would suit their own fashion sense and interests.
Samantha Barr, above, is an example of the typical young, confident, indie musicians that we see commonly today although she has her own uniqueness which makes her special – this is the reason which I chose her to be an artist featuring in my magazine. I interviewed Sam herself, asking her to answer each question honestly, which is what I used to create the double page spread.
The guitar players at the Winbalm concert are another example of the social group I have tried to represent in my magazine. Their fashion sense, taste in music, and confidence whilst performing would be inspirational for readers.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I took a close look at the NME website.
By doing this, I found the media institution who publishes the magazine. Looking on their website helped me to find information on their company and the audience of the magazine itself...
NME.COM is Europe's biggest and most viewed music website. It has earned worldwide respect for its rock music news and features, which are updated around the clock. With 1.3 million unique users generating over 13 million page impressions nme.com is the U.K.'s premier music content website. It offers unparalleled access to an affluent young audience and a unique opportunity to communicate with them in an environment that they relate to and return to frequently - 63% visit the site weekly or more frequently*. The nme.com audience is made up of key demographic groups-
• 65% Male*
• 50% 16-24*
• 23% 25-34*
• 79% ABC1*
Our readers are passionate about music and as a result of their close relationship with the site content they are far more responsive to advertising. Whether they are more positively disposed towards brands that they see as supporting their favourite site or accessing advertising that they see as particularly relevant to them and their lifestyles they are 33% more likely than average to have taken action as a result of seeing an advertisement on the site*.
Music may be our readers' passion but they are also keen consumers of films, dvds, concerts, technology and lead exceedingly active social lives.
Although this talks about nme.com, it gives me a general idea of the target audience for NME magazine, their style and their interests.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
When attending the Winbalm concert I was astounded by the students who attended. They were all intense Indie music fans, who all clearly enjoyed the performances. They all have their own styles, appearing confident, unique and trendy in their own way.
I believe that those who went to the Winbalm concert are good examples of the audience of my magazine: the age group being 16-25 year olds and their main interest being music (specifically Indie music).
How did you attract/address your audience?
The title.
The name of my magazine, “Muse” was chosen after a lot of thought. I would like the reader to actually believe that this magazine is their very own ‘muse’, inspiring them to create their own work. The slogan, “Found yours yet?” emphasises this, involving and interesting the reader directly.
The cover.
The cover is the first thing the audience would look at before purchasing a magazine. Therefore I made sure I created an interesting, eyecatching front cover for my magazine.
The model on the cover is looking straight at the camera...
This would make the reader feel as though he is looking at them, making them feel more involved and interested in the magazine.
I chose a simplistic colour scheme that not only works well together, but is simple and easy to read. Therefore the reader is more likely to read the article names, making it more likely for them to buy and read the whole magazine.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Using the computer was an important process to creating my product. Through the preliminary task I was able to familiarise myself with Photoshop and I put this new found knowledge into creating my final magazine. I used Microsoft Publisher to create the double page spread. This helped me to add text collums easier.
Here is a list of the different technologies I used throughout the process of creating my magazine.
• Photoshop
• Microsoft Publisher
• Photograph Camera – this was used to take high quality photographs which I used.
• The studio & lighting - using spot lights and flash photography I was able to take high quality photographs.
• Google – using this search engine enabled me to find different examples of existing media.
• Blogger – this website enabled me to submit blogs focused on the process of creating my magazine. I was able to keep track of my progress this way.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
I believe that I have learnt a great deal throughout the process of creating my final product.
Looking back at my preliminary task I can see many aspects which I believe we’re not very effective. I believe I have learnt from these mistakes and used my new-found knowledge to create a better product for my final piece. Some examples of this are...
• The text seemed to clash with the image on some areas of the cover on my preliminary task. On my final piece I used a block of colour as the background to the text which made it stand out more.
• The shaped images in my preliminary task don’t look very professional. I made sure the images I used in my final piece was either square shaped or had the whole background erased from them.
• The font throughout my preliminary task was not unique or interesting. To enable me to use fresh, appealing fonts, I used www.dafont.com to download fonts which I believed would be effective throughout my magazine. I made sure that I didn’t use too many different fonts, keeping the simplistic, yet stylish aspect of my magazine.
Creative Risks
Risk: Some of the photographs taken at the live Winbalm event did not work as I did not have control, as the photographer, over the images I produced – the artists themselves were performing their own productions.
Cost: The images could have been blurry because of the movement, or the lighting could have caused a negative effect on the photographs, i.e. making them too bright, etc.
Benefit: Because I took many photographs I was able to produce some effective, appealing photographs.
Examples of photographs which didn’t work as well are...
Here I could see how the lighting had affected the first image, and Sam had turned her head away from the camera on the second, making the photograph look boring.
Because my aim was to create an Indie music magazine, following the typical aspects of this type of magazine, I did not take many risks. I chose models, settings, costumes, etc that I knew would be effective as similar features have been used before.