Evaluation - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I think that my magazine represents a particular group of people who like fashion, art, culture and music. I can see people from the ages of 16 to 25 maybe, I have created quite a young and modern magazine which represents a young group of people who care about fashion, celebrity culture and of course pop music. The artists that I could see being in my magazine that are current right now are people like Katy Perry, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Madonna even though this is a young and modern magazine, I think that Madonna represents the evolution of POP re-creating her music and re-inventing herself so many times to keep people interested.

Another artist who is simliar to mine is someone like Katy Perry. They are both Pop artists and have re-created themselves and their sounds to be current.

Katy Perry's style is very fun and colourful, ever since her recent second album 'Teenage Dream' she has totally changed her appearance from her debut album 'One of the Boys' which was a very classic girl next door look. Listening to both albums, you can clearly see the differences, at the very start of her first single 'I Kissed A Girl' people thought she was a one hit wonder. but she then continued to released top 10 hits like 'Hot N Cold' and 'Waking Up In Vegas' to show that she really does have talent. Then coming back to the phenominal second album and single release 'California Gurls' featuring Snoop Dog which went straight to numbr one.

Unlike Katy Perry, the artist featured in my magazine Chanel Smith started working in the music industry from a very young tender age and now she has come back by re-inventing herself and her sound to start the next stage of her life. They are both at the same age, race and styles and have the same target audience.

So I think these two artists represent a particular group of people who follow fashion trends, like to listen to pop music, they also have an appealing personlity and conifendence which will make it eaiser for the audience to like them.

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

Firstly, I am going to be talking about the name of my magazine which is 'M' which stands for Music. I thought that this would be pretty obvious as it is a Music magazine, so I think that by using a acronym it plays on the reader's mind and makes them think about what it stands for. But when they take a read of what is on the cover, they will release that it is a Music magazine. Other music magazines which have either just one letter or a couple of letters are magazines like Q and NME, I think that the reason for just using letters as the name for it is because it is easy to read and remember. I also think that by just using one letter, it makes the cover of the magazine stand out more, as I have got my model in the middle of the page and the 'M' kind of hugging and surrounding her, it closes her into the middle and forces the audiences to eyes to look at her so in my opinion I think that my magazine uses the convention of a Music magazine.

In my magazine, I have kept the layout pretty simple. For the cover I kept to the conventional 3 colour palette with blue, pink and white, this kept my cover looking professional and simple. I wanted the model to be the attraction of the page. So to do this, I decided to do a surrounding effect around her with the 'M' and her name written on both sides and the other featured articles and artists in the middle. I think that this layout it very simple and it doesn't draw too much attention away from the featured model and creates a sort of symmetrical appearance to the eye. For my contents page, I have kept it simple again by just using columns, this again keeps the overall appearance of the page appealing to the reader's eyes. It's easy to read, you just scan down the columns to see what is inside this particular issue of the magazine and there is also a picture of the artist from the cover on there aswell. Lastly, my double page spread, I have followed the generic convention of using laid out columns for my article, I have done this because I wanted it to be easy for the reader to read and not get distracted by having words all over the place. I have kept it simple and clean so it has an overall appealing appearance for the reader. I have also used on of the pages for the double page spread as a full photo of the artist, I have done this because I didn't want the double page spread just to have words on it. I wanted it to be interesting, so by using pictures in my double page spread I am following a convention of any magazine overall because usually when I pick up a magazine either if its fashion or music, the artist/ celebrity that they are featuring will normally have a couple of photos for the double page spread article. 

For the front cover, my model is wearing a embroidered anchored polo shirt and high waisted black skinny jeans, I reason I chose the blue anchored top was because it was a navy blue, and I thought that this would be easy to edit and enhance the colours to get my pop art effect. I wanted the artist featured on my front page to not be too fashion forward because it is supposed to be a Music magazine. So I kept the outfit that she was wearing quite casual and young conveying to the audience what kind and person she is and what kind of music she produces. The shot of her is a frontal mid shot showing her upper body and some of her legs, I used this particular shot because I really liked the expression on her face, it's sort of cheeky in a way and it makes the people looking at the cover think that there is something on there. 

I have chosen to use a couple of fonts for my magazine, for the 'M' on the cover I chose the font 'TALLEREVOLUTION' to get the slim figure of the M to give it a professional look. Then artist's name, I chose to use 'Lane D' which had more width to it to make the artist's name stand out to the reader. In my double page spread, I chose to use 'Calibri' for the font of the article, this was clear and easy to read for the reader and kept it looking nice and professional. 

I would definitely think that the overall appearance of the magazine tells the audience what genre of Music it belongs to, by using bright bold colours and colour blocking I definitely think that it conveys to the readers that this is a POP magazine. In the front cover, I have used Andy Warhol's pop art style editing on my model and the classic green background like Warhol used for his canvas of Marilyn Monroe and I really think that this helps lift the cover and make it more noticeable to the audience and I have done this throughout my pages.

The colour scheme I have went with is Andy Warhol's pop art, for my front cover I have used the 3 colour palette for my texts and also in the contents page unlike my double page spread where I have only used one colour for the font which is black to make it easier for the reader to read. I really thought that by taking inspiration from Andy Warhol it would really appeal to my target audience.

Evaluation - Comparing the conventions of an existing magazine to my final music magazine

I have chosen V Magazine because it has some of the same conventions as my magazine. V Magazine is a high fashion focused magazine which comes out once a month. 

They both say the name of the featured model/ artist on the front. This, except from the model on the front will also be a main element in attracting the audience to want to buy the magazine. Sometimes they may not recognise the person on the cover, so when they see their names, it would re insure them who the person actually is on the front cover. So then, they can ultimately decide if they want to or not to buy the magazine. So by having the name of the featured person on the front is very important in getting people to buy the magazine.

The ‘masthead’ of these magazines are very different from the conventional magazines you see on the newsstands, instead of having the masthead at the top of the page, they both have the letter name of their magazine behind the model which makes it look more interesting and artistic and more appealing to the audience to look at.

Same camera shot used for both of these covers, on V Magazine’s cover, the model Gisele Bundchen has struck into a high fashion couture pose. On mine, I have placed my model in the same position in the middle of the page. This will draw attention straight away from the audience and make them want to know who is on the cover.

 The bar-code has been put at the same place on the pages. By having it at the bottom of the page, it doesn't draw any attention away from the model/ artist featured on the front. When the creator of the page is designing, they also have to think about the page looking aesthetically appealing as well, as this is the audiences main appeal to buy the magazine.

Currently, there are a few magazines that have just one letter for their name. For example with this particular magazine, Q and W magazine which is again a high fashion magazine. I think that reason for this is because by just having one letter, it is more likely to stand out to the audience on a magazine stand because there is just one thing.

Magazine Analysis

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Pictures

Test Shots:

I have taken these test shots before I went ahead and took my real photos, as the model is my friend I really wanted to make her feel comfortable in front of the camera so I tried a couple of things to make her laugh. She did lose one of her front tooth so I think that must have taken a hit to her confidence because normally, she is a very confident person. It took about 5 or ten minutes or so to start getting the pictures that I wanted. Through the test shots, I could see what I needed to improve on whether if it was the angle of the shot or what kind it was like a mid shot or a close up. I found what poses worked and which ones didn't, and I as found out through taken more and more pictures that the best angle and type of shot was a front facing mid shot, it mainly focused on her and the different sides of her from the different expressions through the shots which is what my article is mainly about, how she has overcome her past and starting the new chapter of her life with a new out look on life.

Real Shots:

 After I had taken the real shots, I started seeing the photos that had potential to be put into my magazine, I found a couple of photos which could be my cover and the photos that I could include in my double page spread. I really wanted a variety of different shots to show the different sides of her, so I took a couple of genuine laughing ones and a couple of ones with just some random poses. I also really liked the one where she was standing in the centre of the shot with her hands linked a giving a cheeky smirk to the camera which would make the audience intrigued as why she is smiling if they saw it on a news stand.

Magazine Publisher

The company who will publish my magazine would probably be a company like Conde Nast, I really like this company because they publish a lot of well known magazines like 'VOGUE', 'GQ', 'Vainty Fair' and 'LOVE'. They currently don't do a music magazine which is why I would think that my Magazine woud be a good addition to the current collection of magazines they publish. I would say that 6 of the 15 magazines they publish are mainly fashion based, which I think my magazine will go well with, binding music and fashion together will make it appeal to the audiences that would normally buy the fashion magazines, but also open up a new market for pop music lovers.

Pitch Feedback

I thought that my pitch went very well, I presented a 'Animoto' presentation pictures and ideas of what my magazine would be like. I chose the song 'Music' by Madonna as the background to the presentation, I thought I got my ideas across clear and concise, I put the artists which I would like to be in my magazine like Madonna, Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj and Lady Gaga. There, right at the start you knew the feel of what kind of Music was going to be in the magazine. Then presentation moved onto the inpiration of Andy Warhol and his 'Pop Art' which I wanted to incorporate into the magazine. I wanted it to have an artistic edge to it instead of just being a plain music magazine, I thought that this would a good way of attracting to different audiences. In the pitch, I also showed that I the magazine to be Fashion forward but not focusing on the Fashion too much as it is a Music Magazine. But I thought that by making it just a bit Fashionable, it would make it more appealing to the younger audiences I am trying to attract.