· In what ways
does your media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?
My magazine was inspired a lot of different magazines from
different genres but I would say mainly by VIBE magazine as my magazine was
partly a hip hop magazine as well. I looked at the layout, colour scheme and
the mastheads they used, to get inspired. I noticed that with most magazines
the masthead would be placed behind the heads of the artists, but that depended
on how popular the artist was and also if the magazine itself was popular
enough to partly hide the magazines name.
In my magazine (RnBsSoul) my artist “Nicki Ross” is slightly
covering up the masthead, because even though the magazine is quite new, which
means that the masthead should actually be in front of the artists head, so
that people could read it, I wanted her to be the centre of attention, because
due to her popularity people would buy the magazine, and like that they would
get familiar with the magazines name. By having the masthead in white and being
on a black background it stands out and catches the audience’s attention, and
at the same time it brings calmness and softness into the front page. This was
important as the name of the artist is in a bold red, which shows the passion,
so it needed a color to bring calmness, so that it would be balanced. I used
the following conventions to make my magazine look like a real magazine:
Barcode (so that my magazine can get scanned), cover lines (Nicky Jane Ross and
stories that are in the magazine), I did this so that when people saw the cover
lines it would attract them to buying the magazine, as well to just give them a
little inside to the magazine. I made sure that some cover lines are bigger than
others, as this shows the importance of the different stories, and as Nicky
Ross is the centre of attention in my magazine, it was very important that her
cover line was the biggest one. As she is a well-known artist, a lot of people
would be attracted to her story and therefore buy the magazine. For the
placements of the cover lines, I looked at other magazines to get inspired, and
saw that most of the time the cover lines were placed around the central image,
but without distracting or confusing the readers, it rather made it more
appealing. So that’s what made me place my cover lines around the image as
well.
I wanted to challenge other magazines by not just having one
genre as most magazines, that’s why my magazine represents both old and new
school of both RnB and Soul. This gives me a wider audience but also makes my
magazine stand out from others and makes it break out of the stereotype. Throughout
my magazine I kept my color scheme consistent. So that it wouldn’t lose its
focus. I mainly used red, black and white on my magazine. The red represent the
passion of RnBSSoul and also keeps on catching the readers eye, the black just
makes sure it stays calm and doesn’t lose the main focus of the magazine, and
the white shows the class and purity in the magazine.I kept the colour scheme
consistent throughout the magazine.
My main image of Nicky Jane Ross is a medium-long shot in
the middle of the front cover. I made sure that the image was taken in a direct
mood, as it is very important that the person on the front cover keeps eye
contact with the audience, as that also attracts the audience.
I also tried to follow and develop conventions on both
Contents page and my DPS. On my contents page I used more than one image to
show other artists that were going to be in the issue and the featured artist.
I also placed page numbers on the images so that people only interested in
certain artists could look at the image and jump straight to the page. Again I
looked at music magazines to get inspired, for my contents page, I tried to
keep in close to their layouts so that it would look real. Then for my features
and regulars of my magazine I once again looked at different magazines and used
parts of their layouts of that as well, for my own magazine.
In my Double Page Spread, I followed conventions by
including a small cover story about Nicky Ross’ struggle with the media and an
interview between the artist and the interviewer. I did this because both of
these are very common in music magazines. I also used a defining quote from the
interview in bold text and placed it on the side of the interview so the reader
can get a sense of what certain questions will be about, I got this idea when I
was doing my case study(VIBE magazine interview with Solange Knowles. This is
something that is used very often in magazines.
· How does
your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product represents both male
and females and probably has a wider age range
(18-35) as usual magazines as it represents both old and new school music. Because
my magazine doesn’t just represent one genre as well, (as it represents both
RnB and Soul) it gives me a wider audience, but mainly black people as they are most liekly to listen to RnB and Soul. My artist that I used for
RnBsSoul is 25, this is right in between the age bracket, which is good because
like that both the younger and older generation can relate to her. Her style,
morals and music appeal to everybody is this age range. The central image on
the front cover shows a young black woman that is very sexy but still classy.
She shows the sexiness by curving her back and resting her hand on her hip,
this little but important details help to exaggerating her figure. Even though
the dress is quite fitted, I made sure it wasn’t too tight and didn’t show to
much skin, so that the image would still have class. Her sophisticated look
also shows her class. I used this image because it shows her sex appeal and
class very nicely. This is important, because sex sells and the class makes the
crucial difference between an porn magazine etc. and an actual music magazine.
Females would most likely buy this magazine, because of her appearance/fashion
(her hair, make up etc) as they idolize
these celebrates and try to get their inspirations of fashion from them. Males would probably be attracted to the
woman herself, but then in a more sexual way and therefor buy the magazine.
· What kind of
media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Miller publishing would be a publisher that would be
interested in my magazine as they publish a lot of magazines that go into the
direction of my magazine such as VIBE magazine, but also Gospel Today. Even
though Miller does not just publish one genre my magazine would be the first
one that represent more than just one genre in a magazine, and this would be
another reason this company would want to publish my magazine, because it would
gain much more publicity.
· Who would be the
audience for your media product?
The main audience would be 18 to 30, as my magazine does not
only present the new but also the older generation of RnB and Soul. RB’s Soul
doesn’t just have one specific social class that it is talking to, but rather
covers all of them as it is intellectual, classy, but still hip, fun and easy
to read. My magazine will be targeted both at male and females, so I will make
sure that there will articles in RB’s Soul that will interest both genders.
There is no specific ethnic group that I’m targeting at either, as this genre
of music can be listened to by any ethnic group.
· How did you attract/address your audience?
I attracted my audience firstly with my artist that is on
the front cover. Secondly I made sure that each cover line speaks to a broad
audience and doesn’t narrow it down to just one particular group. I also showed
artists fashion in RnBs Soul magazine, their stories (biographies etc.), and the
links between oldies and newbies. I also
showed that the magazine has a website, so that people that don’t want to
actually go to the store to buy it would have the ability to go online and
subscribe and read it there. Like this they can keep up to date easier, and
because we live in a society that’s very used to technology and that has become
comfortable it will attract more people. (talk about the language for the dps and
explain how u used technology )
· Use of
models, colours-layout, language, genre and style of content
The colour scheme is calm, classy, but still hip! I achieved
this by using white, black and a red. The lettering is in a cursive style. The
red represents the passion of the music and magazine. It represents both old
and new school of the two genres that I’m using and because old school had a
lot of bright colours I thought red would suite it very well, as it shows the
fun of the music! The white shows the pureness and elegance of the magazine and
shows that unlike other magazines of this genre this magazine is rather
representing the class and elegance of the celebrities that are being presented
in the magazine. And the black calms the magazine down and evens out the red.
· What have
you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The process of constructing my product has taught me a lot
about using cameras, software such as Adobe Photoshop and InDesign and also
websites such as Prezzi and Survey Monkey. When first using the cameras I had a
very basic knowledge and didn’t know about important factors such as shot types
and lighting. Using the photo studio I got a small inside to a professional
photo shoot. I was able to use a lot of equipment I was not familiar with
before, this expanded my knowledge about photography. Because of the
introduction we had with the photography teacher I did not have any major
problems on the day of my photo shoots. All in all it was a fun experience and
also thought me a lot about photography and organising a shoot.
For my front cover I used Adobe Photoshop, because I was
already familiar with that it wasn’t that difficult, but still challenging as I
used it in a different way than I was used to, but now I do feel more
comfortable with that program as ability of using it has expanded. I can use
more tools and effects and know more than I did before. Adobe InDesign was something I had to get
used to first, as I hadn’t used it before, so at first it was quite tricky, but
after I understood the basics of it was fun and helped me to develop my
magazine even more. I’m glad that I was able to use it and learn about it, as I
feel comfortable on it now.
For questionnaires and presentations I used websites such as
Prezi and Survey Monkey. This wasn’t particularly difficult, but I had fun
doing it and now know a different way of doing questionnaires and
presentations.
· Looking back
at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression
from it to the full product?
At first I felt very uncomfortable about this task as I
didn’t know anything about it (lighting, colour schemes, shot types, posing
etc), but after completing this task I must say I feel much more comfortable
with it and can confidently say that I would be able to create another magazine
successfully. In this task I learn how important it is to have the right
lighting and background as well as clothing as it affects the shoot/ image very
much. I believe my skills in planning and improvisation have improved as well,
because that’s what this task was mainly about- planning the shoot, dates,
layouts for the magazine etc and improvising with the models. I learned about the importance of planning,
by not planning it so well on some parts, because this showed me how much
easier it would have been if I would have planned it all out.
