Final pieces

Preliminary task complete

Thank you

To the moderator, my name is Grace and this is my blog for my AS Media Studies coursework. Since starting this coursework I have learnt new skills such as; how to use different software, the typical conventions of music magazines and how to attract a particular audience. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog!

Evaluation

Audience profile

I have created 2 audience profiles for the type of people who would read my magazine

Millie is an 18 year old female student who is studying music at college. She loves indie/rock music and always reads magazines like NME and Uncut. She keeps up to date with albums and reviews from her favourite artists and often attends their shows. She also spends her weekends at her local music venue seeing some of the upcoming bands from her area. She is also looking to start a band herself. She is interested in fashion and she gets her inspiration for her outfits from magazines and from following the trends of her favourite artists. When she's older she would like a career in the music industry. She is from a working/middle class background and is prepared to pay monthly for my magazine.

John is a 24 year old male who works full time as a photographer. He has always liked the indie/rock music and when he was younger used to attend gigs a lot of the time. Now he's older and married he doesn't spend nights out chasing his favourite bands but he listens to the radio throughout the day to keep up to date with his music taste. Him and his wife have been to concerts together for bands with the likes of Oasis and Coldplay. He also likes to read magazines like NME and Kerrang. He goes to his local pub on a Friday and listens to the band that play. When he was a teenager he played the guitar in a band himself and he still plays his guitar at home. He is working/middle class and is happy to pay for my magazine monthly

Although they are different genders and at different life stages, the thing they have in common is their music taste. I intend to target this audience by including key pieces about the music and include information on the instruments, upcoming gigs/events and lots more. I have written more about what I'm including in my magazine in the posts called 'market research' and 'stories/articles' on this blog.

By creating these audience profiles it allowed me to show the type of people I'm looking to aim my magazine at. This was helpful as it gives a real idea into what the audience will be like rather than just fitting into categories that I have made for the target audience. This taught me to imagine the type of person and apply the magazine qualities to them.

Left third

The left third is one of the most important parts of the front cover because when the magazines are stacked up on the magazine rack this is often the only part that is visible. This is something I've learnt in lessons and doing research of other magazines

This is my left third. I have fit my magazine name into it so it can be seen instantly by the buyer. I have also got part of my main image shown so that will be a celebrity that will be recognised by the buyer instantly making it attractive to them. I have also got 3 of my current stories which is important because this will want the reader to look inside to find out more

Before starting this course I had never thought about the left third, but throughout I have learnt how important it is and why I needs to have so much attention to detail.

Mise-en-scene analysis: 3

I chose this setting because it is very musical orientated! there are music posters in the background, a guitar, and on the left there's an amplifer. These are things all very involved in the music world and adds to the effect of the genre.

One thing that really bugged me after looking at this photo was that the bed she's sitting on wasn't made! Although it is meant to be an 'at home' interview and should look comfortable, noticing it now for me it was too comfortable and looks scruffy. If I were to take this again I would make the bed or get the model to sit on a chair instead.

 

 

I also took some extra photos to show more of the setting and the props involved in it.

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Looking at mise-en-scene throughout the course allowed me to grasp real ideas and concepts of what it includes and how big an impact it has on the whole magazine. I learnt by taking photos and seeing what I can add in or what should be taken away to make it just right. It helped me get into the mind set of what I wanted my magazine to look like and create my final pieces.

Mise-en-scene analysis: 2

This boy is called Adam, like Carmen he is interested in the indie/rock scene and he loves music. He straight away fits into my genre by the tattoos on his arms, these are a sign of slight 'rebellion' but more the idea of just doing what he wants, because he likes it! I asked him to wear simple clothes of just jeans and a white T-shirt, this was to draw attention to the instruments and the idea of the music he would be involved with. He is wearing a beanie hat because I have seen many other artists dressed like this, and it just looks natural on him. I have included the guitar in this shot to show the genre of music and there are also other musical tools such as the amp and there is a microphone lead showing. Because my double page spread was about an 'at home interview' with this band, I made sure the shot was made visible that it's set in a real house, rather than a studio or made up set.

 

By doing an analysis of the mise-en-scene in my setting it gave me a chance to express the features I have used and how I have done it. I learnt that mise-en-scene is extremely important and without looking at fine details I could have given off the wrong impression or idea of what my magazine is about. Even though my aim was to have these photos look like they were taken in a home, because they actually were there are some things that I have accidentally left in the shot such as a glass, this could have been taken out to make it look slightly more professional. 

Mise-en-scene analysis: 1

This girl is called Carmen. She is an indie/rock music fan herself and reads magazines similar to the one I have created. I chose her because of her fashion sense, she's wearing a band t-shirt which is part of the genre. She is wearing simple, minimal make up and I chose this because with this type of music it's about simplicity, it's not about flashy clothes, fake tan, make up and looking like a 'dolly bird'. She is wearing a few bracelets which are plain and fit in with the style she's trending. I used a guitar because of the genre, and this made it clearer to see that it's an image used for a music magazine.

I learnt how to apply my mise-en-scene correctly throughout the course. I made sure it all applied to the genre and the article I was producing and by creating a profile about the character it really shows how I want the genre to be expressed. Looking at this photo there is one small thing that makes a massive impact, and that is the thermostat that I left in the shot. Even though I could easily crop it out, it is still something that shouldn't be there and that I would look out for if I were to do it again.

Editing process of photo

For my media product I had to edit some of the photos to get them the way I wanted them to look. Here I am going to show the process of how this was done

 

 

First I saved my photo I wanted to use onto my documents 

 

Secondly I dragged my photo from the files into photoshop

 

 

That looked like this

 

 

I then chose the polygonol lasso tool which selects parts of the image that you want when you click, it has a line that works as a lasso tracing around the shape you want. It is very faint in this picture but it shows where I have started selecting the part I want to cut out

 

After I had cut out the shape that I wanted, I then right clicked what I selected and chose 'layer via cut' which then cut my shape out and put it onto a seperate layer



 

Finally I copy and pasted it onto my plain white background to form the start of my magazine front cover

 

 Learning how to edit photos was extremely important for my media product because it was a big part of the magazine. This photo used was my main photo on my front cover so without learning how to edit it, it wouldn't have been right. At first I wasn't very good as it can be seen in the above photos, there are some things that need to be paid more attention to and with more precision, but I learnt this over time and the outcome was what I was hoping for.

Research: Artist/band influence

These are artists I've researched into during the course and they are ones that have influenced me with my own magazine and they are also the type of artists I would want my magazine to feature.

Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine)

What I like about Florence is that she has a unique style and her red hair is iconic, it's the thing she's well known for. She always has hit singles and her albums are always feautred in magazines such as NME or Q.

 

Oasis

 Oasis are a massive band and have always been successful in the indie/rock music industry. Even though they have split up now, all of their songs still live on and they are often mentioned in magazines in 2013. I love the image they are trying to make in this photo and this is the sort of photo I would like in my own magazine.

 

The XX

The XX have only recently become bigger in the music industry, although they have been making songs for a few years now. They are a band that create music with a different approach than any other band and I think they have great songs and style. They often have their abums and singles promoted in magazines like my own.

 

 

Other bands and artists my magazine would feature are: The Smiths, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, Kings of Leon, No Doubt etc.......

From doing this research I learnt what type of artist I should be looking to create and what the magazines and audience are looking for.

This is the start to my double page spread. I have kept my grey colouring the same as it is for the front cover and contents page, this develops the house style. I have 2 images in this at the moment that I have cropped, but I'm unsure whether I'm going to keep them or not because I've not finished all of my text

Colours

 

I started with just having a plain white background for my magazine. I chose this because I thought it would show the details of the magazine but instead I decided that it didn't look right and that it didn't blend well. I then decided on a rough, grey backround I made using the fill tool on photoshop.

I think this grey looks so much better because it just seems to work all the colours in together.

 

By trying out different styles and colours I learnt what looked good and what didn't.

Me using software

I have took some photos of myself using the photoshop software

 

Learning how to use the software was a fairly long process and I found that each time I used something like photoshop, I found something new and learnt how to do something different. At first my skills were relatively basic and I wasn't very confident in using all the different types of software, but over time I realised I could learn how to use all the different tools and I would say now that I can comfortably use any of the software again.