Front cover 
Double page spread.
Contents Page. Media Commentary
For my practical production piece I have decided to produce a music magazine as these are often aimed at a young age group that I can relate too. I researched a range of different main stream music magazines such as; NME, Rolling stone and Q. My research showed me that there was a large difference in weekly and monthly magazines. The main differences I observed were the extravagance of the photographs and the amount of writing on the front covers. From my research I decided to produce a weekly magazine that would have more text on the front cover as monthly magazines have a stronger following and dedicated readership; therefore there is not such a need for pull quotes or puffs. As my magazine is a weekly edition the language is more informal as my key demographic would be paying a lower price for the magazine, I have set the price of £2.50 that is printed on the front cover as many monthly have a starting price of around £3.50. I have also aimed my magazine at social groups B to C1 and C2. This is the reason I used a simple and legible font as my magazine would not need to rely on eye catching gimmicks. For my mast head and Contents page I used a “sketch” font that complements the brick wall background on the front cover. I chose this font as it is simple yet effective as it still makes an impact on the cover without looking out of place. As many magazines hide part of their masthead behind the central image I was torn between doing the same however I choose not to as my magazine is not yet established within the industry. I decided upon the title “eight” as there are eight notes in a scale and dance is counted in eights giving the masthead more musical credibility.It is also a short and memorable title. Although my magazine is a weekly its readership is assumed to have musical backgrounds.
My music magazine fits in with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, on the basis that it creates a sense of belonging to the reader. By purchasing and actively seeking out this form of media they feel they are part of a unique group that have a knowledge and understanding of today’s music industry. This also helps to build on esteem as readers feel they are accepted by a social grouping and have confidence and knowledge on the subject of modern music. This is also fits in well with the Bulmer and Katz uses and gratification theory. My magazine aims to inform and educate about modern music and new music, it manages to create this effect through entertainment for example whilst reading my double page spread my reader will become educated about new music artist, “April Smith,” whilst being entertained by her story at the same time. Whilst reading about my feature artists story the reader is able to identify with her as they learn more about her struggles and ambitions. Through education comes knowledge and this aids social interaction for example when reading the editorial a reader would absorb the knowledge that “eight music” are creating a stage at V festival a talking point in social interaction. All of these points help a reader to escape the daily grind of their lives, through entering a world solely based on one of their interests, music.
I originally started with a medium-long shot of a girl with a busy background consisting of trees. However this image did not fit in with the concept of my magazine as it became too “busy” so I re-shot my photographs, this time using a head on medium shot against a plain background. I used a plain background to focus the reader’s attention on the central image. I made sure that my feature artist was looking directly into the camera to engage the reader almost creating direct address. I decided to use only one image on my front cover as it becomes clear to my reader the genre of my magazine is a magazine with all its attention focused on music artists; as the central image is framed by the caption “April Smith exclusive interview inside.” I have styled my cover image as a main stream accessible music artist. This fits in with the purpose of my media piece as I have decided upon creating my magazine as a main stream magazine with the purpose of entertaining and interviewing music artists. My key demographic would be 16-25 year olds as the magazine does not comment on wider issues and is mainly focused on bands and musicians. This would place my music magazine at an advantage as the audience could be expanded upon as many consumers are interested in more than just music artist’s music. I have not used any gender stereotypes in my magazine meaning that my magazine is assessable to both males and females. Socially I would expect my readership to be interested in a wide variety of music and consume other types of music media such as NME radio,festivals and music blogs.
I have included an editorial in my contents page to add authenticity and to establish the tone and register of the magazine. I decided to use my editorial as a way of further explanation of my front cover “feature artist” I have written that April Smith is an up and coming music artist; this shows that my music magazine represents new talent as well as established. My music magazine also has many other well known bands and artists advertised on the front cover this creates appeal to a wider audience and makes the genre of the magazine clear. I decided upon using the same font for the title “eight” as the contents title “contents” this helps towards creating a recognizable house style along with the continuous colour scheme of black, orange and grey and blue. I used this colour scheme as it is lively and fresh without being brash. I also included a band index so that readers can easily find the band or artist they are most interested in a common feature in popular music magazines. This also helps to make the magazine more flexible as readers are able to flick to the part they are most interested in as magazines are not used to hold peoples attention for hours upon end but to fill in gaps within their scheduals.
For my contents page I decided again to only use one image to focus the reader’s attention. I also used larger fonts to highlight more important or larger articles and to create diversity. I placed the date and magazine website at the top of the page to advertise the magazine’s website as many magazines such as NME are now heavily dependent on their websites due to the 21st centurys fast developing culture of technology. This is a feature that I also used in my double page spread and it is implied that it would feature on every page. I also used the title eight on every page next to the page number as I observed many magazines use this continuous technique.
I have redrafted my contents page four times as I have struggled to find a page I feel is in keeping with the magazine. The difficulty lies in the simplicity. Many contents pages have a white background and the only colour comes from the masthead,text and photographs. However this can come across as unfinished and unproffesional. I am happy with my final attempt because I have managed to incorrerpate small pockets of colour through the use of text boxes and fonts yet kept the no fuss aproach.I have enlarged certain fonts to draw the readers eye directly towards the articals that are of highest importance or intrest.
For my double page spread I kept the lay out simple and again to keep the tone of the magazine only used one main image. By keeping the lay-out basic all the attention is focused on the interview. I used a quote “I just never wanted to go mainstream” on the feature picture to pull in reader interested.
I changed my original ideas during the production of my magazine as I discovered more about music magazines. My main change was to only include music artists and the layout of my pictures. Since I started to produce my magazine I have greatly expanded my knowledge of Photoshop although I still need to progress further and become more confident in my abilities. Since creating my preliminary magazine I have noticed a great improvement in my observation techniques and feel I have developed a way of creating a more feasible magazine. I have realised the importance of detail, for example page numbers and sticking to the house style. As my knowledge of Photoshop has grown I have also been able to expand on my idea in a way that way not possible for me in my preliminary task, for example effectively cropping photographs and using layering and different effects.
For my practical production piece I have decided to produce a music magazine as these are often aimed at a young age group that I can relate too. I researched a range of different main stream music magazines such as; NME, Rolling stone and Q. My research showed me that there was a large difference in weekly and monthly magazines. The main differences I observed were the extravagance of the photographs and the amount of writing on the front covers. From my research I decided to produce a weekly magazine that would have more text on the front cover as monthly magazines have a stronger following and dedicated readership; therefore there is not such a need for pull quotes or puffs. As my magazine is a weekly edition the language is more informal as my key demographic would be paying a lower price for the magazine, I have set the price of £2.50 that is printed on the front cover as many monthly have a starting price of around £3.50. I have also aimed my magazine at social groups B to C1 and C2. This is the reason I used a simple and legible font as my magazine would not need to rely on eye catching gimmicks. For my mast head and Contents page I used a “sketch” font that complements the brick wall background on the front cover. I chose this font as it is simple yet effective as it still makes an impact on the cover without looking out of place. As many magazines hide part of their masthead behind the central image I was torn between doing the same however I choose not to as my magazine is not yet established within the industry. I decided upon the title “eight” as there are eight notes in a scale and dance is counted in eights giving the masthead more musical credibility.It is also a short and memorable title. Although my magazine is a weekly its readership is assumed to have musical backgrounds.
My music magazine fits in with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, on the basis that it creates a sense of belonging to the reader. By purchasing and actively seeking out this form of media they feel they are part of a unique group that have a knowledge and understanding of today’s music industry. This also helps to build on esteem as readers feel they are accepted by a social grouping and have confidence and knowledge on the subject of modern music. This is also fits in well with the Bulmer and Katz uses and gratification theory. My magazine aims to inform and educate about modern music and new music, it manages to create this effect through entertainment for example whilst reading my double page spread my reader will become educated about new music artist, “April Smith,” whilst being entertained by her story at the same time. Whilst reading about my feature artists story the reader is able to identify with her as they learn more about her struggles and ambitions. Through education comes knowledge and this aids social interaction for example when reading the editorial a reader would absorb the knowledge that “eight music” are creating a stage at V festival a talking point in social interaction. All of these points help a reader to escape the daily grind of their lives, through entering a world solely based on one of their interests, music.
I originally started with a medium-long shot of a girl with a busy background consisting of trees. However this image did not fit in with the concept of my magazine as it became too “busy” so I re-shot my photographs, this time using a head on medium shot against a plain background. I used a plain background to focus the reader’s attention on the central image. I made sure that my feature artist was looking directly into the camera to engage the reader almost creating direct address. I decided to use only one image on my front cover as it becomes clear to my reader the genre of my magazine is a magazine with all its attention focused on music artists; as the central image is framed by the caption “April Smith exclusive interview inside.” I have styled my cover image as a main stream accessible music artist. This fits in with the purpose of my media piece as I have decided upon creating my magazine as a main stream magazine with the purpose of entertaining and interviewing music artists. My key demographic would be 16-25 year olds as the magazine does not comment on wider issues and is mainly focused on bands and musicians. This would place my music magazine at an advantage as the audience could be expanded upon as many consumers are interested in more than just music artist’s music. I have not used any gender stereotypes in my magazine meaning that my magazine is assessable to both males and females. Socially I would expect my readership to be interested in a wide variety of music and consume other types of music media such as NME radio,festivals and music blogs.
I have included an editorial in my contents page to add authenticity and to establish the tone and register of the magazine. I decided to use my editorial as a way of further explanation of my front cover “feature artist” I have written that April Smith is an up and coming music artist; this shows that my music magazine represents new talent as well as established. My music magazine also has many other well known bands and artists advertised on the front cover this creates appeal to a wider audience and makes the genre of the magazine clear. I decided upon using the same font for the title “eight” as the contents title “contents” this helps towards creating a recognizable house style along with the continuous colour scheme of black, orange and grey and blue. I used this colour scheme as it is lively and fresh without being brash. I also included a band index so that readers can easily find the band or artist they are most interested in a common feature in popular music magazines. This also helps to make the magazine more flexible as readers are able to flick to the part they are most interested in as magazines are not used to hold peoples attention for hours upon end but to fill in gaps within their scheduals.
For my contents page I decided again to only use one image to focus the reader’s attention. I also used larger fonts to highlight more important or larger articles and to create diversity. I placed the date and magazine website at the top of the page to advertise the magazine’s website as many magazines such as NME are now heavily dependent on their websites due to the 21st centurys fast developing culture of technology. This is a feature that I also used in my double page spread and it is implied that it would feature on every page. I also used the title eight on every page next to the page number as I observed many magazines use this continuous technique.
I have redrafted my contents page four times as I have struggled to find a page I feel is in keeping with the magazine. The difficulty lies in the simplicity. Many contents pages have a white background and the only colour comes from the masthead,text and photographs. However this can come across as unfinished and unproffesional. I am happy with my final attempt because I have managed to incorrerpate small pockets of colour through the use of text boxes and fonts yet kept the no fuss aproach.I have enlarged certain fonts to draw the readers eye directly towards the articals that are of highest importance or intrest.
For my double page spread I kept the lay out simple and again to keep the tone of the magazine only used one main image. By keeping the lay-out basic all the attention is focused on the interview. I used a quote “I just never wanted to go mainstream” on the feature picture to pull in reader interested.
I changed my original ideas during the production of my magazine as I discovered more about music magazines. My main change was to only include music artists and the layout of my pictures. Since I started to produce my magazine I have greatly expanded my knowledge of Photoshop although I still need to progress further and become more confident in my abilities. Since creating my preliminary magazine I have noticed a great improvement in my observation techniques and feel I have developed a way of creating a more feasible magazine. I have realised the importance of detail, for example page numbers and sticking to the house style. As my knowledge of Photoshop has grown I have also been able to expand on my idea in a way that way not possible for me in my preliminary task, for example effectively cropping photographs and using layering and different effects.
