Saturday, 29 November 2014

Masthead MoodBoard


These are the Eight selective Mastheads that I have thought of using, All of the are of the font Philly Sans, which I wish to use in my final magazine. 

Planning (Fonts!)

Wednesday, 12 November 2014


I like the layouts of these particular Double Page Spreads as they have an image covering the left half, which is very large. This is great as it allows it's audiences to identify who the topic of the story is based upon. They also have a pages wrting on the right half, which is sufficient amount, as it's giving enough detail,, but doesn't go too over board. The font colours used in the majority of these are usually black with a white background. The images are mid-shots covering chest upwards, so you can see the artist or long shots covering the entire body of the artist and the background, which allows us to see the clothing and style. I will use this particular layout for my magazine as i think it's very effective, as the Main image and text have an equal balance.



Monday, 10 November 2014

DPS planning ;)

Conventions of Magazine Articles


There was one main topic that was about Record signings and underneath that we find how Kid Ink’s aspirations of becoming a big Hip-hop star, that he kept his standards high, by having some of the best role models such as kanye west, Pharells and Timbalands.

They talk about money and fame, so whether if he took it on independently and made his money or got signed, he said he didn’t make much more money, but that he enjoyed getting involved with big things, making big movements. 

All the questions that were opposed to kid Ink were open questions, each flowing on from the other, none that were random, each question built up on the previous question asked, and some acting like comments on top of the answers that he gave.

Kid Ink spoke in a particular way, that he mainly used short sentences, but had a lot to say. So it gives the impression that Kid Ink was thinking his answers out and speaking. He spoke with confidence, not very formal, but used slag type of English to portray his personality, easily understood by the interviewer and his audiences would find him cool. He also used references from other people, so speech bubbles were used.

His personality is questioned, as he’s compared with artist such as Tyga, Wiz Khalifah and Chris brown. He try’s to show that he’s different from them, so brings them in his music videos and shows the differences between him and them, but they’re under the same genre of music.

The interview really try’s to Question the relationship between Kid ink and the artists that he pairs up with, and how he comes about with the producers this case Tyga and Mustard. He explains how they usually book the same studio and help each other out, with Beats, ideas, and lyrics.

How the Successes are boasted at the start of the interview.

Wednesday, 5 November 2014

Marking Feedback


Production of Magazine
Complete?
Comments
Conventions of magazines used
  • Masthead?
  • Feature story?
  • Sell lines?
  • Price?
  • Barcode?
  • Main image/range of images?

No

Some features missing
Main image is effective
Masthead title perhaps needs to be more specific?
Font
  • Reflects audience?
  • Reflects purpose?
  • Readable?

Some

The font does reflect your target audience through colour and type but it is slightly hard to read.
Sell lines
  • Clear?
  • Grammatically correct?
  • Appropriate to task?
  • Sufficient number?

Some

Punctuation needs correcting
Some good sell lines which are engaging
Need more to reflect conventions
Photos
  • Framed a shot including and excluding elements as appropriate?
  • Used a range of shot distances?
  • Shooting material appropriate to task?
  • Considered mise en scene- lighting, colour, model, objects and setting?
  • Manipulate photo through cropping and resizing?
  • Photos are good quality?
Some

Shots framed well- the contents page photo is particularly good.
Mise en Scene considered and photos are of a good quality
Missing:
  • Range of shot distances
  • Range of photos
Layout
  • Follows convention of a magazine?
  • Content evenly spaced?
  • Photos and font blend well together
Some
Font colours and photo colour blend nicely
Contents page layout does not follow conventions
Front cover begins to – and what is there is good- but it feels unfinished
House style
  • Colours reflect purpose?
  • House style used throughout?
  • Fonts matched well?
  • Pictures reflect brand?
Some

House style established
Some colours used throughout
Fonts are similar on both pages
Not enough variety in photos to reflect brand
Student Comments:
I will be:
Correcting my punctuation.
Adding more photos and Shot angles.
Reflect conventions in my work.



Focus group & Analysis


Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Questionnaire analysis

I decided to ask my questions to equal numbers from each gender, which will allow me to get less biased results, and allows me to bring forth more ideas for my music magazine.



The people who took part in my questionnaire were all in the age bracket for my target audience for my music magazine, which is great as it allows me to understand my audience from questioning them.


Here I find that the majority of the people who I questioned enjoy reading magazines, this is a great way now to understand what in particular they enjoy reading and what contents interest them.




We find that many people don't read their magazines online, which shows that it's not very popular for the internet. We understand that because there's a lot of competition for magazine to compete with search engines as people can directly search for the information that they wish to understand.



Here we find that music is a very popular magazine genre, and secondly cars. This is good to know that music is popular in the industry, as I wish to create a music magazine. We find that the competitors are the car magazines.

We find that most of my target audiences read about 1-4 magazines in a month, this is good for market research as I will aim to release my magazines monthly, which will keep them updated and entertained.


Here I identify that the majority of the people do not tend to buy magazines, this is a bit of a worry as it shows that the magazine industry aren't making a lot of money. This may be the fact that online data bases are over powering magazines out there, as it's giving the same information that you can find in a magazine.



Here we find that most of the people who read magazines, look for the latest information and trends. 7 out of 12 people look for this and the other majority look for information about the celebrity, therefore we find that celebrity gossip is a hot topic for our audiences.



Most of the people have chosen that maroon should be the background colour of my magazine i may take this into account and actually use it for my final product, but the secondly are grey, white and dark blue, which I also may consider. depending on which house style I choose.


This was a question asked to identify whether one of my ideas for a possible masthead is likable. Everyone who took part in this questionnaire liked my masthead. So therefore I may use this.


We find that 'watches' are a very popular and attractive item for artists to wear, their beliefs being that it shows sophistication, class and swag.

I find that the majority of the people that I have questioned are really keen on the look of a jacket, possible materials being leather, for an R&B artist to wear.

Magazine Case study


Magazine Case Study

About the front cover:

The magazine that I will be looking at is vibe, which is a popular music magazine. The music is usually under the genre of R&B and hip-hop. They also have an online website which was only introduced in 2014, this feature allows the public to follow cool and new content through many media devices. The magazine is issued out every other month, and costs around five to six pounds.
   
The front cover usually has an image of a famous celebrity, very centralised and enlarged, covering usually half of the magazine. The celebrities are always positioned to overlap the masthead to show their superiority. The ‘feature name’ of the magazine is usually on the top half of the left third. The barcode usually sits at the bottom of the left third. In the mid left third and the right third has most of the information.


The typography is made to being overlapped, the titles and the writing around have a sense of swagger about them. Making it look urban and sophisticated at the same time, which makes it appealing to look at for the targeted audience so they are more likely to buy it.

The ‘freebies’ inside give free magazines out and extra special content from the magazine when you scan in the codes.

The front cover fits in with the conventions of a typical magazine, as everything is arranged perfectly, nothing looks random about the magazine. The celebrities are made to look very empowering mainly because of the posture in which they are standing and the lighting put in to make them stand out, acting like an ideal role model for the hip hop culture, so audiences would be wanting to buy the magazine. The colours fit in very nicely with each other, it’s not too bright and vibrant nor dull, and all these magazine have 3 very good colour combinations, each fitting the house style and genre for which it was made. The layout and typography add the sense of sophistication, but still an overall urbanised style. All this attracts the target audience for which it is aimed at, so they would buy it as it’s a perfectly constructed magazine.




Inside the magazine:

The language used in this magazine isn’t too formal nor informal, but the use of Standard English allows the magazine to being understood by everyone who reads this magazine, whether they fit under the target audience or not. The editorial style has some swagger about it which fits in with the culture of hip-hop and R&B. The music genres that are covered are rap, hip-hop and R&B. The contents inside this magazine are usually. The contents of the magazine usually include stories about famous celebrities, new song releases, interviews, album reviews and fashion gossip.

Adverts within the magazine, there are usually advertisement of upcoming parties, new headphones, albums, new clothes and young singers. The unique selling point for this magazine would be that, this magazine isn’t too urbanised it has a sense of sophistication to it as it’s very edgy, neat and nicely arranged to being organised. To allow a bigger and more broad variety to their target audiences. More too that it only releases every other month allows people to keep suspense on what’s coming next, the magazine is less likely to die out. Also it has a special online webpage to allow its audiences to interact with the later news and special updates online. The depth of the articles inside the magazine are both superficial and in-depth. The magazine goes in depth for when it’s talking about a particular artist and it’s superficial when it’s a short interview or a review based on an album.



Friday, 17 October 2014

Questionaire for Magazine


Music research – questionnaire

Please Circle the following

What is your gender?
Male or female

Are you aged 15-20?
Yes   no

Do you enjoy Reading magazines?
Yes      no

Do you read your magazines online?
Yes   no

What genre of magazines do you like?
I don’t like   Music   fitness   gossip   cars lifestyle   other ___________

How many magazines have you read in the past month?
0        1-4       5-7      8 or more

Do you buy your Magazines?
Yes        no

What do you look for in a magazine?

Information about the celebrity
New music
Gossip about the celebrity
New information
New artists in the industry
New events and parties

Other _________


What colour background do you think would be the best for an R&B magazine?

Dark Red      Dark Blue    Maroon   Purple   Black    White     Grey   Other__________


Do you like the masthead name ‘Miracle’?
Yes    No

What type of clothing accessory attracts you most to a magazine?

No comment    Chains   Belts   Hats    watches    other _____________

What clothes do you think R&B artists should wear?

Jacket    Sweatshirt   T-shirt   Hoody    Other________

Conventions table


Conventions:
Masthead
Genre conventions:
The types of mastheads under my genre are Vibe, RNB, Scratch, fresh, Blender, vice, XXL, Flavour. Beats and Source. These were made to stand out, to seem as if the magazines very up to date, trendy and cool
How will this inform your own planning?
I may use the mast Head ‘Miracle’. As it sound new flashy and trendy, and fits in with the conventions of my media magazine, which is R&B
Colours
Most of these magazines have colours that are black or Red, with usually silver or white backgrounds.
I may use the colours black, maroon with a lighter background, to fit in with conventions of the colouring for music magazines under my genre.
Fonts
They are big, bold and catchy in the masthead.
The writing on the sides tends to be smaller, with more information.
I am following the conventions for the fonts as I want my Masthead to stand out, so that my audiences can identify my magazine and also that the information on the sides are smaller but also stand out making it easier for audiences to see it.
Images
Shot type
Mise en scene
Lighting
The Images are usually famous celebrity singers. Usually of those who do R&B music.
The shot usually covers the whole of the magazine, either being a mid shot, or a whole body shot.
The lighting is mainly focalized at the celebrity’s to add emphasis to the artist, so that audiences may connect with them.
My image will be of model acting like a celebrity, looking like an R&B singer himself.
The shot types I will consider to take will be a shot facing up to make my model look big and important. That his audiences look up to him. The body language and posture would be upright, making him look very dominant and cool.
Sell lines
’10 big secrets the films won’t tell’.
‘All that is cool crazy and crass’.
‘The race issue: exploring America’s fear of a black planet’.
‘Dipset wants your beats’.
My sells lines will associate with new music releases, or promotional stuff that will engage my audiences. I’m not sure of examples at the moment as I am still considering.
Model
TI, Trey songs, Kanye west, Eminem, Chris brown, Kid Ink, Drake and Jay-z.
My model will be a friend of mine, possibly out of Farhan, Nasim, Rashid, Yaaseen or someone else.
Clothing
Black t-shits, vests, No clothing, bright Red t-shirts, jackets, jeans, hoodies, jogging bottoms, and denim jackets. Chains, Hats, snapbacks, Studs, boots, high-tops, trainers.
The clothing my characters will wear would be urban, cool and trendy. Fitting under the convention of R&B clothing styles. So people can easily identify that this is a music magazine under the genre of R&B.
Content of the magazine
Features Music song promotions, famous singers mainly R&B. Promotion of the later headphones. Special features, top tracks and lists.
The contents of my magazine will relate to those out in the market.
Design and Layout
Masthead is usually located to the top third of the magazine, positioned horizontally. The main image holds up the majority of the magazine, very enlarged, and usually shown as dominant over the masthead. The information and anchoring text usually is near the left third and right third surrounding the main image. Also you find that the sell lines are usually placed at the top of the magazine. The barcodes sit at the bottoms of the left third and the right third of the magazine.
The design of my magazine will fit in with the regular music magazine layouts. And will have colour.
Contents page structure
The main image is more towards the left side. The title ‘contents’ is positioned to the right third. And the information about what’s onwards is below it with bullet points.
I will have this to show what’s inside the rest of my magazine, as the main image wears different clothes in this page of the magazine I will too do the same. I will have him shifted to the left, with all the contents on the right.
How many articles are there?
There are usually six to eight articles in the magazines. Mostly about the artists, fashion updates and music.
There are usually about 6-8 eight articles, so I will probably have about the same amount.
Feature story
Serve and volley, Wrath of the math, Passion of Chris, cover: rookie of the year, death of a salesman, twin killing, they got balls, young forever and fashion: a splash of masculinity.
I will have celebrity features, and other things that are new, catchy and trendy in my features.