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.

Magazine Draft

Audience Profile

I would like to think that the people who would be interested in my Magazine would be fashion forward and interested in Music, Pop and Art. I wanted to incorporate these things into my Magazine because they are what teeangers are interested in. It may not be all of them, but I would think that at least one of the elements of the 3 would be one of the likes of an average teenger therefore I am not only targetting the people who like Pop Music as it s a Pop magazine, I am also targetting other people who have other interests other than Pop Music.

I see that the magazine will be unisex,targetting both sex making it young and modern. even though the magazine itself will be unisex, I would think that depending on each month and who is on the cover, that it would depend who would buy the magazine. For example, artists like Britney Spears and Ncki Minaj would generally be targetted towards girls, but on the other hand, boys would be interested in anything with a attractive woman on the cover which could bring them in to want and read the magazine. Then if I wanted to attract boys to the magazine, as boys don't stereotypically like Pop artists like Madonna or Britney Spears, I would try and incorporate an idea of having a band or an artist from a totally different genre and then having a artist or band from the Pop genre and collaborate them both on the cover and the spread. Hence, this will attract the girls who like Pop Music, and it would also attract to the boys that likes other artist's like Kanye and Kings Of Leon.