ERIN BOAST

I was set the task to produce a new music magazine and create three different items; a front cover, a contents page and a double page spread. All of the text and images used, of which there had to be a minimum of four, had to be original. This involved doing a lot of research and planning before being able to produce the final product.

One of the first things I did was carry out research on three separate music magazines produced by any of the three institutions; IPC Media, Bauer Media and Condé Nast. As I had already decided I wanted to do a music magazine for the indie/pop genre, I chose to research the NME, Q and Rolling Stone. I looked for the major conventions used in a music magazine but also for the unconventional ways too, so that it would help me when producing my own magazine.

I tried to use as many of the conventions of an ordinary music magazine in my own. I found that the masthead is always wrote in a large font and placed at the top of a magazine, either in the top left corner or right across the top of the page, which is what I chose to do. A main image is always used which is the main focus of the page and the main cover line should be linked to this. I have reflected this idea onto my cover by making my image the only one so that it is the most prominent feature, also by making it cover most of the page and crossing over the top of the masthead. I have made my main cover line stand out by putting it in a larger font than the others and by placing it in a box across the main image so that it shows the cover line and the image are linked. From looking at indie based music magazines I found that a lot of the writing was done in capital letters which was a convention I used myself, however one of the conventions I didn’t follow was using the same font for each cover line and instead chose a different one for my main cover line. I made sure to put a date line, issue number and barcode onto my cover as these are some of the conventions also used. Another of the main conventions is to have a continuous colour scheme through out the issue of the magazine, for this I chose to the colours black, purple and white.

I have designed my contents page to also follow the basic conventions. It has the title ‘contents’ which is always placed at the top of a contents page and I have used the same font that was used on the cover page. I have also put the dateline again as this is often done in magazines. I have split the contents list into different subtitled sections as this was a convention I found was used and also placed them at the left hand side of the page which seemed to be something that was done often. I decided to carry on using the same font from the front cover lines in my contents page. A main image is normally used on this page, which is something I chose to do too and it also links to one of my feature stories. From the three magazines I researched I found that usually at the bottom right of a contents page is where the magazine places an advertisement, magazine information or a review. However, I decided to use this space to place a brief summary of one of my feature stories as I thought this would help to gain a readers interest and make them want to read that article. I continued on the colour scheme of purple, black and white onto my contents page so that it all looks as though it is from the same magazine.

For my double page spread I continued on the colour scheme of purple, white and black. From my research I found that the headline is usually wrote in a big text across the top of the page which a convention I decided to follow. However, I used my images in an unconventional way as there is usually one main image of the artist or band, but I decided to use three smaller ones. I did this because the headline is meant to link to the image, so as mine is ‘The Dolls come to life’ I thought it would be a good idea to use the images to create a strip of photos you would get from a photo booth. By doing this it shows the artists are having fun as you would usually go to a photo booth with your friend, therefore this gives the idea that they are coming alive and enjoying their life. I wrote my article in an interview style which is a way that is often used in magazines to gain the interest of readers. I also enlarged a quote from the interview which is a convention I have noticed being used.

The media institution that I think would most likely distribute my music magazine is Bauer Media. Bauer Media produce magazines such as Kerrang! which is based on the rock genre and Q which is more Indie. They also have radio and TV music channels such as Smash Hits and 4music, both of which play mainstream chart music. Therefore, I think my magazine would best be produced by this institution as they do not have a magazine that is solely based on the more pop side of music, which my magazine music genre is indie pop, but do have connections with it through radio stations and such.

I have chosen to target a niche audience with the age range of 16-24 and for both genders. The reason I think my magazine would be best suited for the ages of 16-24 is that this is the age that generally listen to the most recent music and are the most interested in it. Because of this I have had to consider that a lot of the people in this range will be a student or have recently began working, meaning that they will not have much extra income. I chose the price of my magazine to be £2.50 and for it to be produced every two weeks. I think that this is an affordable amount of money for my target audience to spend as it means that if they buy every issue it is only £5.00 a month. It also has smaller target audiences within the main target audience because of who is featured on the cover that week and who are the main cover lines about. My magazine has an example of targeting certain groups of people as it is advertising a competition to win tickets to see the band Paramore. This means that any body who is a big Paramore fan will be more inclined to buy that weeks issue to win the tickets.

I tried to attract my target audience through many ways. I chose to use the colours black, white and purple for my colour scheme as they all represent different things but have the same main reason. The colour black is the colour of power and strength. As my magazine is different from other magazines by having an indie/ pop genre it is showing that it has the power over other magazines as there are no others produced with the same audience range. White has the connotation of purity and freshness, which again is the idea that my magazine is something totally new. I chose purple because it is a bright colour and so shows the magazine has a ‘pop’ image side to it also, however it also has the meaning of independence and creativity, again linking back to the idea of it being original. Another way I tried to attract my audience was through the images. My main image on the front cover has been shot so that you can see their face and most of their body. I did it like this so that it showed how they are styled; one in a black playsuit showing the indie side and one in a blue striped clingy dress showing the pop image. I think by styling them this way it helped to give the audience an idea of what music my magazine is based on. I asked my models to look directly into the camera as it makes the reader feel more involved with the artist because it looks as thought they are staring straight at them. The images I used on my contents page are ones that I have taken at live gigs. I think this attracts the younger audience as if they are someone who is into music then they will have more than likely been to see an artist live, therefore they can relate to the images and it also may be somewhere they went to themselves. For my double page spread I decided to use three photos to make a photo strip, which is something you would usually get from a photo booth. I did this because I thought it would make the images look more fun. To also make the images look appealing to the reader, the models are pulling silly faces and wearing bright coloured clothes, showing the fun side to pop music. I used a bold font for the masthead, main cover line, headlines and sub titles as it is quite a blocky font it catches the eye. Also, on the front page I chose to write everything in capital letters to make all the cover lines stand out. To write the quote on my double page spread I made sure to use a bold purple and big italic font as I think this draws the reader in and once they have read the quote they will want to read the rest of the article. I also used a similar technique on my contents page where I did a brief summary of a feature story so that the reader would want to find the article and read about it. The over all design of my magazine I think is clear but bold, so this would attract the attention of a young person because of the bright purple and the large block fonts. The name I chose for my music magazine is ‘The Rumour’. I think this is appropriate as it is all the latest music news, for example, who is going to be bringing out a new single/album, who is going to be touring, who is collaborating with who. It also links to my target audience as when you are a teenager there are often a lot of rumours you hear about people and you want to know all the latest gossip.

From my preliminary task of making a front cover for a college magazine, I had already learned a few of the basics to work the image manipulation programme Photoshop and the website Blogger. However, I still found it quite difficult to get used to all the different tools and techniques of Photoshop and found that a lot of my work was through trial and error. The easiest tool I found to use was the ‘quick selection tool’ which allowed me to click and drag across an area of an image that I didn’t need and select it all without getting any of the parts I wanted. All I then had to do was click delete and that part would go. However, using this tool often left the edges jagged so I then used the ‘eraser’ tool to with a soft brush to smooth out the image. This was very effective for when I wanted to delete the background off my photos to just have the image of the models. I had difficulty at first trying to work out how to change everything on different layers as you have to be on that layer of text for example if you want to change it or move it. Photoshop did get easier the more I used it, however I still do not know how to work a few of the tools. I found the website Blogger really easy to use as I have used sites like it before. The only minor problem I had with it was when I first used it and I wasn’t sure how to upload photos onto posts.

I think by doing a preliminary task it gave me good idea of how much time and effort needed to go into producing a decent final product. I had never used Photoshop before and so I had a lot of difficulties with it at first as I had to figure out what everything did and how it all worked. It was also my first time using the website Blogger but as I had used something like it before I adjusted to it quickly. From doing this first task it gave me a good chance to get used to the programmes and websites I needed to work with and also helped me to learn the basics of what a magazine needed such as the conventions and language. Making my music magazine was a lot different from the college magazine as I had to make the contents page and double page spread as well as the cover, which meant it took a lot more time. However this time I did a lot more research by looking at three popular music magazines and also at pictures of other artists and bands. This helped me find out the conventions of a music magazine and also the different conventions of different music genres. I also researched the three magazine publishers to find out which one would be best to publish my magazine, as well as looking at the prices of magazines and how often they are published. I got audience feedback when producing my magazine to get a better idea of what people like and wanted from a good music magazine. I set up four polls on my media blog which I then asked people from my target age range to complete. It was a simple procedure of going onto my blog and clicking the answer which was appropriate to the person. The polls ran for seven days before they closed and the showed the results. The questions I asked where:Another thing I did was planning. This included draft layouts and designs of the front cover, contents page and double page spread by either drawing them by hand or using Microsoft Publisher. I did spider diagrams of everything that would need to be on each page to give me a base of what I would need to do to produce a music magazine. Compared to my preliminary task I had a lot more photos to choose from which and I decided to try out the models in different settings and outfits to see which gave me the best results.

· Which is your favourite gender? Indie or Pop

· Which is your favourite Indie artist or band? Paramore/Kings of Leon/ Arctic Monkeys or Kasabian

· Which is your favourite Pop artist or band? The Saturdays/ The Wanted/ Pixie Lott or Ollie Murs

· What are your favourite sections in a magazine? Interviews/ reviews/ photos or gossip