Evaluation

My music magazine use conventions of other music magazines as on the splash I have a masthead and a picture that takes up most of the front cover, my picture also overlaps the masthead as do other music magazines. I have a main subtitle on my front cover and other smaller subtitles. Also I have special features and exclusives, which other magazines use as well. On my double page spread my magazine follows conventions by having a picture on one of the pages and the other page predominately text, which is the article. Also on my double page spread I pull out certain quotes from the article and make them bigger and change the colour to break up the text. This is also another code and convention of music magazines.

My magazine represents different social groups, for example groups who like alternative music, as my music magazine is based on alternative music. Also my magazine represents teenagers. It does this as my main feature is a band called ‘Cool For Cats’ and this band is made up of two teenagers. It therefore represents teenagers as being able to do whatever they want to do, and being very motivated.

My magazine would be distributed by IPC, this is because they distribute magazines such as NME, and the NME is a magazine which involves itself in the same genre of music as my magazine does. Therefore the layout of there magazine is similar to mine, and it would benefit my magazine more to be distributed by the same institution as so a well known magazine like the NME.

My front cover attracts and addresses my audience as the picture I have selected as for the splash is the main focus and is positioned in a way that overlaps the masthead and makes the key aspects of the picture stand out, for instance the guitar that is in the picture stands out. I have done this to address my target audience. As my target audience are people who like alternative music, and music that is guitar based. For this reason I felt it was important to make the guitar visible. To do this I realised that other text and word art on the splash needed to be in other areas. Another way in which my front cover attracts and addresses my audience is by having ‘exclusives’ and ‘reviewed inside sections. This attracts my audience by making them feel that getting this magazine will give them the chance to know something exclusively, be the first to know this information. My contents page attracts and addresses my audience by having pictures in it that makes the audience want to know more about it, for example another picture that focuses on the main story on the front cover. Again the band pictured with a guitar and drum sticks immediately shows the audience what type of magazine this is. Other aspects of my contents page back this up. For example having the ‘features’ column shows the many other features in the magazine that the audience can view. My double page spread attracts and addresses my target audience by the use of imagery, on my double page spread I have the background of my picture that extends across the page, which my article is written on top of, this picture is again of my man story, and pictures them facing each other with each member of the band with their instrument. These pictures were originally separate but I have edited them so that they form one picture. The other picture on this double page spread is of the back of a guitar which has the band members reflection in it. This attracts my target audience as it is a picture that is different to all my other pictures in my magazine, and has rarely been done before, and has many connotations, it co notates how much they like their particular genre of music, and how passionate they are about guitars. It also addresses my target audience as well because this passion of guitars that the band has can be related to by the many of my target audience, as my magazine specifically focuses on alternative music.

I have learnt a lot about technologies from the process of constructing my magazine, for example Photoshop. This programme has helped me edit and create many of my pictures to attract my target audience. Also I have learnt a lot about a camera as I have had to learn how to get the right shot, and use the right amount of lighting to create the specific effect I want, and to make the shot look professional.

Looking back at the preliminary task I feel I have learnt a lot about the computer programmes, for instance I feel I have more understanding on Photoshop. I have learnt how to edit my pictures. For example the main picture on the splash of my magazine has been made so that it overlaps my masthead. This is just one of the skills I have learnt using Photoshop.

MY FINAL DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

MY FINAL CONTENTS PAGE

MY FINAL FRONT COVER

Development of my Double Page Spread

At the top is my first attempt at my double page spread of my magazine, below it is my final double page spread of my magazine. After revising my first double page spread i decided to make changes to my double page spread to make it better. For example one of the changes was to te title, the title and subtitle below it went across the page and this does not follow codes and conventions of magzines. So all i did was move the title to the left so that it did not go over the crease in the middle of the page.

I moved the quotes that i had highlighted out of the text to various points in the text, so that the text was broken up, i did this because i didn't want there to be huge amounts of text with no breaks. To break up the text further i moved the smaller picture from the right hand side page to near the text on the left.

I also added a 'what you need to know' section which tells the audience a few bullet points as to bits of information on the band and tickets. It also gives a must see rating on the band.

Development of my Contents Page

At the top is my original attempt at my contents page, below it is my final contents page. I have revised my first attempt at my contents page and continued to make changes to it. For example, in my first attempt i have at the top of the page 'contents' as a title. I decided that this was too big, i then decided to bring the magazine name from the front cover onto my contents page, in the same position on the page. This allowed me to move the title 'contents' to the left of this and make it smaller.

Then i looked at the rest of my page and realised that at the bottom of the page there was a big space with nothing in it. This made the contents page look very top heavy and very unbalanced. So then i made each of my pictures bigger and shifted them to the right hand side of the page, this made the right hand side of them page filled.

The text then had to move, so i moved the text to the left hand side of the page and I made sure that the text took up most of the left hand side of the page so there was no big spaces. The subtitle 'features' didn't stand out much so to incorporate the colour scheme more i decided to change the font colour to yellow and put a red strip behind it which linked with the red border of the main picture.

Also i felt it was hard to determine which story went with which page on my features list, so I made two changes. One was to put the page number on the picture aswell, and the second thing i did was to move the text about the pictures as close to them as possible, coupled with this was the fact that the text about the pictures is bigger than the other text in 'features'.

Development of my Front Cover

At the top is my original attempt at my magazine front cover, my final front cover is below it. I then revised the front cover and began to make changes to it. For example, on my original front cover there is a big gap in the top right corner, which makes the whole of the front cover look unbalanced. So i took other bits of text from lower down on the page that didn't look very visible and put them in the top right hand corner. This made the magazine look better in two ways. Firstly the splash began to look more balanced and also the text became more visible. Above this text i put 'reviewed inside' this gave the text some meaning.

I then looked at my main subtitle in the middle of my front cover and in parts it didn't look very clear. So i then outlined it with red and it became more visible. I also then decided to change the angle the text was as it went against the angles of all the other text on the page. I then moved the main subtitle down the page aswell. I did this because the main part of the picture behind was covered by the it. To show even more of the picture i moved the 'go on tour' text to the right underneath the main subtitle. This allows the audience to see more of the guitar and the guitarists hand. Which is important, as it shows what my picture is portraying about the band.

Once i did this however, the middle of the splash became packed with all the text, and my other subtitles made it hard to see which part of text was with which other one. I also began to notice that at the bottom of my magazine there was lots of other unused space. So i moved my other subtitles down to the bottom of the page, and made them about the same size, to show that they are of equal importance, and not bigger than my main story. To show that these were still big features, i put an 'exclusive' heading above them.

Contents Page Plan

Double Page Spread Plan

Plan of Front Cover

Q Contents Page Analysis

This contents page follows many conventions of a magazine contents page, and in my opinion is a typical and ordinary contents page. The masthead that reads 'contents' is at the top left of the page and the masthead from the splash 'Q' is also in the top left corner, but shrunken down to the same size as the masthead on this page. Still with the same font and the same colours. The colour theme has continued from the masthead on the front page to the contents page, with titles and headings, in a white coloured font with a red strip behind them. Also the page numbers down the left hand side are red with a white background down the left hand side.



The picture is big, as it needs to be the main focus and catch the attention of the reader, it is positioned on the right hand side of the 'features' section (were all the pages are listed). The picture is of one of the main features in the magazine, and it is because of this that it has to catch the readers attention. The picture is of the band 'The Courteeners'. The band are stood on a hill and it shows them stood next to eachother, this is relevant because they are a scottish band and the hill and grassland is representative of Scotland. It also is one of only two pictures on the contents page, the other picture is near the bottom of the page and is considerably smaller than it. This other picture is in a different section called 'review', the fact that there are two pictures makes it clear that there are two sections. It does this aswell by having the big picture to the left of the 'features' section and the smaller picture to the right of the 'review' section it gives the page a more balanced look, rather having both pictures to the right and making it look unbalanced.

Q Front Cover Analysis

This is the splash of an edition of 'Q' magazine, there is a variety of media language on this splash and it follows many of the conventions of a music magazine. The masthead is in the top left of the magazine and is in big bold font, around it is a red box that is filled in, this helps the masthead to stand out from the rest of the splash.

The picture follows conventions of a magazines splash, as conventionally the main picture on the splash takes up approximately two thirds of the page, as does this picture. The picture is of Liam Gallagher and Noel Gallagher. In this picture they are made to look rebellious and this is shown by Liam showing his tattoo, which is seen as being quite rebellious and also wearing dark sunglasses. Noel is in a denham jacket with his tongue stuck out, with a flicking gesture, all of these things are rebellious and are seen as by teenagers as cool, and many people look upto such big celebrities and want to be like them. So to have Noel and Liam Gallagher on the front cover, this catches the attention of the potential audience straight away.

Unlike some other magazines there is only one picture on the front cover. However there are other pieces of text on the page advertising articles that are in the magazine, these pieces of text follow a colour theme, with bigger text and subtitles in a gold colour font, and the smaller pieces of text in white or in black, which ever makes it stand out more.

Kerrang! Double Page Spread Analysis

I believe that this is a very interesting double page spread out of the Kerrang! magazine, as this follows conventions of a double page spread but goes against a lot of other conventions that are considered important to a magazine.

Firstly this magazine has a title in the top left hand corner, this title is one of the sections that i pointed out on the contents page that split up the magazines pages into sections. So therefore this title in the top left is showing what section of the magazine that this article fits into. Again it follows the convention of Kerrang! magazine as it is in white font with black around it. This colour theme is carried on throughout this double page spread, as even the article itself is written in black but is made to have a white background. The colour scheme is all conotates contrast, and shows what this magazine is about, that this magazine is a contrast to many other magazines and has its own unique music genre which the magazine is based on.

The picture however does not follow conventions of a magazine, this is because it doesn't only just take up the whole of one side of the double page spread it actually takes up approximately half of the other page aswell. This is to make the picture look more powerful, and maybe to connotate how powerful the person in the picture is. This is reinforced by the picture, as it is of a man with a sleeveless top on with lots of tattoos shouting into a microphone, the man in the picture is also muscly. This and the fact that the picture is taken from a low angle all present the man as being very powerful and rebellious.

Around this main picture there are five other smaller pictures all with white borders around them, this border is chosen because the white contrasts with the dark colours behind it. Again this carries on the theme of colours. Three of these pictures have guitars in them and shows what type of band this article is about.

Kerrang! Contents Page Analysis

This contents page follows many of the conventions of a contents page. It has in the top right hand corner themasthead 'contents' this masthead is in a yellow font with black surrounding it in a rectangle. This is chosen as it is the main theme colours and style of Kerrang! magazine. As on the cover of Kerrang! it has text and subtitles on it that are in a yellow font and that have black around them. This theme runs right the way through the magazine and also throughout the contents page aswell. For example on this contents page the numbers are yellow.

Running down the right hand side of this contents page are all the pages numbered and with small titles of the pages next to them, this tells the audience what is on each page. These are split up into sections aswell, such as 'features' and 'album reviews'. This helps the reader navigate the magazine easier and it also gives the reader more knowledge about what each page of the magazine is about. These headings are also in a yellow font with black around them, again carrying on the colour theme.

To the left of this, and taking up most of the page, are the pictures. The pictures are square shaped and sit next to eachother, like rows and columns. The pictures are all the same size apart from one that is the top left to the others. This is bigger than the rest of them indicating that it is about a big story or an important one that the magazine want to communicate to the reader striaght away, and because of this it is the picture that catches the attention of the reader as soon as they turn to the contents page. All of thses pictures have captions that have a small bold title and then a sentence, in normal type, next to it. This allows the reader to have a better insight to what the picture is indicating and what the article will be about.

Most of the pictures are of people performing or in some movement, in the biggest picture it is a man who is swearing and in others of people shouting. This clearly shows what type of magazine it is, and the mise en scene seems to be very rebellious and has an 'in your face' type feel to it.

Kerrang! Front Cover Analysis

This is a front cover of an edition of the 'Kerrang!' magazine. The genre of music this magazine deals with is hinted at with the font of the masthead and the mise en scene of the magazine. The masthead and name of the magazine conotates anger, anarchy and rebellion as the font of the masthead has cracks in it, indicating smashing. Also Kerrang! has an exclamation mark at the end of it this indicates violence and anger, or to signify the fact that word should be shouted. Other written media language is also made to stand out from the background picture, for instance the story preview right of centre is made to stand out, the main part of it 'Green Day' is nearly the same font as the masthead and the other words around it are a mix of green and black, this is obviously it denote the the fact that the main story is about 'Green Day'.

Another important convention of a front cover is the main picture, this picture conventionally covers about two thirds of the splash. This picture is no different, conventionally the picture ties in with the main article in the magazine and is the main selling point. As the picture on the splash is the first thing that the audience sees and also usually the factor that helps decide whether they buy the magazine or not. The picture on this front cover is of the lead singer from a band called 'Green Day'. He himself is a very well known musician and most people who like the genre of music that Kerrang! deals with will know who he is. He is stood with a guitar which signifies further that it is a music magazine that deals with the genre of rock. There is a light behind him and this maybe suggests he is in the spotlight and was performing when this picture was taken. The dark clothes and dark eye make up he is wearing also suggests the genre of music that the magazine deals with is rock/heavy rock.

This front cover also follows another conventional feature of a music magazine, which is the other minor stories have a place on the splash. With smaller pictures and captions in a smaller font, this feature lets the audience know what else is inside this particular edition on the magazine. On this front cover the theme of white and yellow runs through the font and certain words are in yellow, in other places a caption is outlined by yellow. This shows the continuity of colour used, and makes the magazine look professional and well finished.

NME Double Page Spread Analysis

This a double page spread from an edition of the NME magazine. The layout of this double page spread follows conventions of a magazine. One way in which i does this is by having the picture on one side of the page and the main article (the main piece of writing) on the page adjacent to it. Also the the positioning of the title is very clever, this is because it overlaps the crease of the magazine, therefore it is present on each page. The title again is typical of the NME magazine, as it is very bold and clear and has a colour around the font itself. Like the NME masthead on the splash is red with white around it, the masthead on this page is a plain black font but has blue around it. These colours have been chosen deliberately as most of the readers of the NME magazine are male. The theme of black and blue is continued for most of the text on this double page spread. For example in the 'NEED TO KNOW' section and to highlight an important quote in the main article. This continuity gives the whole double page spread a sense of togetherness and the reader knows from this that it is all one piece.

Another common feature is the 'NEED TO KNOW' section. This is common in all of the NME magazines. It is another clever feauture that shortens down the main artucle and gives facts about the band. The reason why i believe that this is so clever is because the average age of a reader of NME is 25 and the target market is people ages 17-30. Generally the readers if this magazine may not choose to read the whole article but still wish to know about the band, this is why i believe this feature was created. Little features like this just help to create a magazine that is modelled well around its target audience, which ultimately sells more magazines.

The image NME have used an image that has many connotations. The picture is of the band 'The Teenagers' and is set in a bedroom with the band members slouched back on a bed. Behind the bed are various posters, what would be expected in a teenagers bedroom. This image connotates stereotypical teenagers and the way that society percieves them as having a laid back attitude and being very lazy.

NME Contents Page Analysis

There is a variety of media language in the contents page aswell. Again in the heading on this page 'NME' is made to stand out and is in its traditional font, with the same colour. This is to show continuity, and so that readers can recognise instantly what magazine it is by just a glance at it. A convention of contents pages is that the main article of the magazine is made to stand out aswell, and in this contents page it does. It stands out by having a picture that is right in the centre of the page, catching the audiences attention as soon as they turn to this page. This picture also has a caption which is underneath. The caption is also made to stand out, with a bigger font which also shows that the caption is linked to the picture as they are both bigger then all of the other articles that are shown on the page.

NME follows another convention of music magazines, by having down the left hand side of the page an index of the bands. In some cases it is unusual to have an index at the front of a magazine of book, but in this case it helps sell the magazine and attract more readers. It does this because it allows readers to check if their favourite bands are in this months edition of the magazine, easily and quickly.

Also on NME contents pages they have sections down the right hand side of the page that they split their stories into. This helps the audience categorise the articles and find the article they want to read. Examples of the sections are 'News', 'Reviews' and 'Live!'. These are in smaller fonts and on the right hand side, this is so that it doesn't take much focus off the main article that is being shown in the centre.