4. BBC Music Magazine Familiar, reliable logo provides instant trustworthiness (BBC). A generic explanation of the magazine, with promotional words (best-selling), and what it contains. In CAPITAL to attract attention and to connotates that there is something important here. (Top word banner). Free gift is advertised clearly in the top right corner. (Top right triangle). The picture of the man is the main focus of the magazine cover. His arm blocks the magazine name which draws the audience in. His arm is raised in an action shot which makes it more interesting. His face is dramatic and emotional which is very striking and prominent. The mirroring of the face is very effective and connotates that there is more sides to this magazine. (Main picture). Title is big, simple, and fits in with colour scheme. It is at the top of the page so it is instantly recognised and the reader knows what magazine they are buying. Arm cuts in front and through the middle which creates a good effect. Website address is clearly labelled underneath which links to more information/activities. (Title). Short story summaries that just give a brief outline of what is in the issue, but it doesn’t crowd the image and make it too confusing. Story titles are also short and bigger than the story summary and in CAPITALS to stand out and so it can be read clearly. Advertises a competition which gets readers involved, and CD which appeals to some readers. (Bottom left text). Bar code, date and price are all featured at bottom of page. They could be displayed more clearly. (Bottom right text).
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6. Gramophone Magazine The picture is the main focus of the magazine cover. Smart dressed man connotates an important figure which makes you want to read about him, and the piano he is sat at draws the reader into the image of the man and suggests what he might be involved in (i.e. playing piano). The story at his side is bigger than the rest as it is the main story in the magazine. It includes quotes from the interview and the word ‘exclusive’ which suggests an interesting story. (Main picture). An important feature advertised at the top of the page with a separate picture. The different background and the text still correspond with the style of the rest of the magazine. (Top banner). Title is large, spreading across the full width of the page. Clear and bold for easy reading and to draw people in. Magazine ‘slogan’ underneath promotes and explains the magazine itself. (Title). List of brief story headings and summaries provide good information but the list format makes the magazine feel strict and serious. (Bottom left text). Bar code, date, price and website address at bottom of page. Unusual because it’s small and tucked away in the corner (especially the website address). (Bottom right barcode).
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9. Analysing Double Page Spreads This double page spread is from the November 2010 issue of the BBC Music Magazine. There is a simple but effective black, white and brown colour scheme; the text is in a clear, easy to read font with the key points (under the title and in the brown box) slightly bigger than the rest. The title is in a much bigger font than the rest of the article and it is in a big space in the centre of the page to draw people in and give readers a quick suggestion of what the article is about. There is quite a lot of text which appeals to my target audience who appreciate reading but there is an equally large image which balances the overall layout of the page. The image is captioned which is useful in identifying the people in it. The small inset picture is nicely slanted and overlaps the main image.
15. Ideas for Cover Image This is the initial plan for my Front Cover Page. I kept this basic layout and most of the text as I felt it suited the genre of magazine I am doing and it also worked with my main picture and stories. It is similar to the BBC Music Magazine I deconstructed as the format suits the style of classical music.
16. Ideas for Contents Page This is the initial plan for my Contents Page. I kept this basic layout and most of the text as I felt it suited the genre of magazine I am doing. It includes all the stories regarding the original pictures I took. The original pictures along the side of the page will be manipulated and blended in to the background to give it a more mystical and effective appearance. I chose them to be my Contents Page pictures because they give a sneak preview of what is in each story.
17. Ideas for Double Page Spread This is the initial plan for my Double Page Spread. I kept this basic layout and order of pictures and text as I felt it suited the genre of magazine I am doing and it also worked with my main pictures and story. The next page shows a draft of the text I will feature on my Double Page Spread. All the text is original based around a fictional classical music award ceremony.
18. Ideas for Double Page Spread MAESTRO Magazine followed the Young Conductor of the Year Awards, which this year was held in Berlin. The competition celebrates the timeless music of the greatest composers, and brings together extremely talented young musicians from all over the world. Musicians can be presented awards for many different categories, including Best Young Soloist Performance and Best Classical Contemporary Composition, but the award at the centre of the competition is the Young Conductor of the Year. Head Judge of the internationally renown panel, Christoph Giovaninetti, a world celebrated violinist, explains how the competition for the Young Conductor of the Year Award works. “Each competitor has to go through several rounds of conducting tough orchestral pieces; classical and contemporary, practised and sight-read. The judges then vote the best competitors through each round until one eventually wins.” The competition has produced many successful names in the world of classical music, including artists like Alison Balsam, the Classical Brit Award Winner, Steven Sivyer and probably the most notable name, Craig Armstrong, who has composed music for films such as Romeo and Juliet and Moulin Rouge!. The competition acts as a platform for budding young musicians to develop their skills, expand their performing experience and meet successful existing musicians. Other award recipients this year included Joby Talbot, who won the Best Classical Contemporary Composition for his film score to Is Anybody There?, and the legendary soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa who won the much deserved Lifetime Achievement Award. MAESTRO Magazine was lucky enough to speak to this year’s recipient of the Young Conductor of the Year Award, Laura Clarke from Gloucestershire, England. “ I am extremely overwhelmed, ecstatic and proud of winning the Young Conductor of the Year Award. I have worked relentlessly for years towards this and I’m glad to finally have achieved it. We asked what her inspiration and motivation for entering the competition was and what she plans to do now that the competition has ended and further into the future. “ My inspiration is definitely my grandfather, Robert Clarke. He was a composer and dedicated his life to music. All my family is involved in the music world and I intend to be too! In the future I want to be conducting world famous orchestras like the London Philharmonic or the Hallé, but for now I’ll concentrate on finishing my education!” We also grabbed a word with Laura’s parents who had this to say. “ We are so proud that Laura has found something she loves and is good at. Winning this competition is a great start for Laura and has given her the experience and confidence to progress in her passion.” It has already been decided that next year’s competition will take place in the very home of classical music, Vienna in Austria, to celebrate the competition’s 25th Anniversary. The Anniversary competition will be bigger and better than ever before, with a special concert during the competition period, featuring past and present Award recipients along with special guest performances. Rumoured to be on the bill are artists like Catherine Jenkins, Alfie Boe and Andrea Bocelli, with the orchestra conducted by David Charles Abell. The founder and President of the competition, Mr Arthur Goodman OBE, will be the guest of honour and the concert may be attended by a representative of the Royal Family; as the Queen herself is the patron of the competition. The concert will take place in the famous ‘Musikverein’ concert hall, which is a fantastic venue and will attract audiences both locally and from abroad. MAESTRO Magazine will be at the concert to report on the celebrations. Further details and entry forms for next year's competition, and the special Anniversary celebrations, can be accessed from the website. www.youngconductorawards.org.uk
24. Audience Feedback Firstly I asked 100 men and 100 women 35+ what they think the target audience of my magazine is. 60% said women 40+ 30% said teenagers and 10% said men 40+. Secondly I asked them if they would purchase the magazine themselves. 60% said yes 30% said no 10% said possibly. Lastly I asked them what they liked about my magazine. 60% said the front cover needed to be more busy, with more cover lines and other text around the image. 50% said the colour scheme could have been more bright and interesting, however the other 50% said the colour scheme was nicely balanced and suited the style and tone of the magazine. I took these views into consideration when tweaking and perfecting my magazine.
25. In what ways will your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My media product will use traditional conventions of magazines like mastheads, cover lines and the rule of the left third. I will also use bright, strong eye-catching colours which are co-ordinated throughout the whole magazine (red and purple) and use strong, interesting and attractive images which are relevant to the storylines on my front cover. I hope that my magazine will emulate other similar magazines on the market because something too radical will not be accepted by the target audience. The layout of my front page will be similar to that of ‘BBC Magazine’ (because of the thirds and cover lines). However, I do hope to challenge the forms and conventions of existing magazines slightly, because my magazine is fairly simple and doesn’t include lots of stories, which keeps the front cover less busy. I think this appeals to my older target audience who might be put off by very busy and unordered front page.
26. How will your media product represent particular social groups? In my magazine I want to challenge the stereotypical classical music fans and show that anyone can be interested in classical music. The traditional classical music fans are middle-aged men and women who are usually middle-class. This is why I chose to use teenagers in my magazine, and represent teenagers as keen, talented and successful musicians and lovers of classical music. The magazine also represents teenagers in a more positive light than the audience of my magazine will currently have of them; that they are wild, violent and abusive. My magazine portrays them as calm, respectful and well educated.
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28. Who would be the audience for your media product? The audience for my media product will be primarily middle-aged men and women loosely from the age of 35+. The audience will probably be quite wealthy working or middle-class because they will have more money to spend on magazine and be more likely to buy it online or in a shop. My magazine will be generally aimed at people who have a love of classical music, whatever their age or social background.
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30. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Before I began this project, I was very weak at using image manipulation software like Photoshop and Macromedia Fireworks and I feel that I have progressed and learnt more about how to use these tools. I had no idea about the conventions of magazines and what techniques you can use to create a professional standard product. Photoshop has been great for manipulating images in detail and very precisely, and Fireworks has been great with the layout of the magazine.
31. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Looking back at my Preliminary Task, I have clearly developed my skills and become much more competent at using Photoshop to create my magazine pages; in the layout, use of tools (like Clone Stamp and Blur which I used extensively to edit my pictures and front page) and the quality of my pictures. I have looked at the conventions of magazines in more depths so my final product will look more professional (specifically adding more cover lines on the front page to make it look more busy). I have also learnt to organise my time more since the preliminary task, as I had to organise a bigger photo shoot with a lot more people and props (including all the musical instruments). I think the main improvement from my preliminary task to my main task is the original photos. I feel I took much better photos than in my preliminary task and I used them more effectively as well. Also, all the pictures are very clear and not pixelated as they were in my preliminary task. This shows the development and improvement I have made between the two tasks.
32. Evaluation of my Product The brief we were given was to produce four pages of a new music magazine in a specific genre of music. We were given the ability to choose the genre of the magazine and I decided to do a classical music magazine. I chose this because I have knowledge and interest of classical music, the instruments and the culture surrounding it; which heavily influences the target audience. Also, because we have the instruments and equipment in school, I will have an easy access to any instruments and facilities for my minimum of four original images which we were told it had to include. My target audience is both men and women from about 35+ that have an interest in classical music. My target audience will most likely be wealthy working-class or middle-class people because they will have more money and be willing to buy products that catch their eye. Most of these people will have internet access and some may only buy products from the internet, so for this reason I decided to link my paper magazine to a website clearly displayed both on the front page and throughout my magazine. This idea came from my audience questionnaire as most of the people who took part had internet access, and the majority of these said they would buy things from the internet. It would be neglectful and daft to discount this proportion of my target audience. The colour scheme throughout the magazine is successfully maintained at a tone motif (reds, purples and whites). This colour scheme suits the tone of the magazine, as it is quite classy, and the audience who read it as they are more interested in the text rather than the decoration. If I could produce the magazine again I would chose more interesting and appealing text and cover lines. The main competition for my magazine are products like BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone who are already very successful and have an established audience. I will sell my magazine in shops and on the internet to appeal to different types of audience. I have priced my magazine at about £3.50 which isn’t that expensive for my audience who are working or middle-class and have money to spend on leisurely things like magazines.
33. My Front Cover Analysis On my front cover, I have tried to use as many of the conventions of music magazines, which I discovered during my research, as possible. I used bold and clear text for the masthead of my magazine ‘Maestro’ to attract potential buyers; the font enables people to read the text quickly and sets the tone for the rest of the magazine. I used an intricate design behind the title, which recurs again on my contents page, and adds to the classy feel of the magazine. I chose to centralise my main picture because it is very striking and dramatic, and then scatter the cover lines around it. This gives room for the cover lines, or brief outlines of the key stories that are inside the magazine, which are another convention of magazines and allow the reader to decide if they are interested in any of the stories in the magazine before they buy it. Other important features of professional magazines are a date and barcode which I included clearly on the front page of my magazine where they traditionally are found. I also displayed a link to the website at the bottom of the page; which is an example of cross-media products. If there’s one thing I would change about my front cover it is that it needed to be busier with more cover lines and a more interesting and busy picture.
34. My Contents Page Analysis On my contents page, I also tried to follow conventions of traditional contents pages and I have used a very simple layout that is very quick and easy to read and provides no hassle for the reader. This is why I chose to use the headings of ‘features’, ‘regulars’ and ‘also…’. It also has pictures which relate to the individual stories and look very effective through the use of Drop Shadow. They give readers a hint at what the story is about and acts as a hook to get them to buy the magazine and read the story. All the story titles and pictures are relevant to classical music, and are realistic, and would interest my target audience. Again I would make it busier and have features on this page, like an editorial, if I could make it again.
35. My Double Page Spread Analysis My double page spread conforms to traditional magazines as there is the basic column layout and the text follows chronologically. The pictures are suitably sized and positioned to follow the story and keep a good balance between pictures and text. The featured pictures have captions so the reader knows how they relate to the story and there is extra information at the bottom of the page; which again links to a website for readers with internet connection. The title of the article is bold and clear along the top of the first page which makes it easier to identify what the story is about. There is also a brief outline of the story to add further detail. The content is relevant to my target audience because it is about a classical music contest where exploring musical talent is encouraged and that is very inspiring. I also tried to incorporate young people into my magazine to paint them in a better light to the older population and I did this by showing them as talented classical musicians.
