3. Throughout creating my media product I tried to use as
many conventions of my targeted genre as I could
without trying to be too predictable. For example, on my
front cover I took inspiration from magazines such as
NME and Kerrang and Metal Hammer.
I also tried to keep the same colour scheme of red, black
and white and heading font throughout the product to
add a professional look.
4. A few typical conventions of my genre of “indie rock”
are; to be independant/unique, abstractness and darker
colours.
On my front cover I have tried to stick to as many
conventions to my genre “indie rock” as I could without
looking like other magazines.
I took inspiration from the NME magazine for my top
banner. This is on many of their front covers, so I decided
to take the idea but make it into my own.
I planned out what I was going to do in my research, by
taking surveys, collecting data from other magazines and
taking ideas that I thought would look best in mine.
5. On my front cover I have used block text. This is not
something that you would not normally see on a
front cover due to the research that I carried out,
however I feel that it adds character and it also
makes the text stand out, and attracts a wider variety
of people including my target audience. pushing the
boundaries of my genre.
6. During my research I found that alot of existing music
magazine‟s have kept to a colour scheme of three colours on
their front cover. I have challenged this by adding a fourth in;
red, black, white and now yellow. This will hopefully intrigue
people as it will catch their eye, seeing as it is a brighter colour
than the other three. It now looks more organised and tidy, it
will also stand out from other magazines.
Another convention that I have challenged is the style of my
whole magazine. Most magazine‟s out there at the minute are
all about famous bands that are well known. Mine is about
new and upcoming bands that nobody has heard of before.
This should attract people into buying it as they will want to
know more about these new bands. It also keeps it exciting
and unpredictable.
Unknown Well Known
band – Band – Florence
Aslan and and the
the Cubs Machine.
7.
8. In the modern world there are many different subcultures
around and get stereotyped for everything they do. For
example Moshers, punks, emos, chavs, indie‟s to name but a
few. I feel that the magazine that I created represents the
subculture of indie people aged 15 and above in many
different ways.
The cover star that I chose is an indie band, along with many
other bands that are mentioned throughout the magazine.
This band are up and coming and people who see themselves
as indie tend to like change and accept to it better as they
want to be unique/individual. Because the youth of today
tend to get alot of bad press, this band could be seen as a role
model as music can get people off the streets, drugs and
alcohol. They will be intrigued by this and being huge fans of
music will help alot with sales of my magazine.
On my magazine I used a variety of brushes on the contents
page and the double page spread, this adds a grungy and
unique look to it making it appealing to my target audience.
Sticking to my conventions will help to represent the indie
culture today.
9.
10. Before carrying out my production, Kerrang‟s publisher is
What kind of media I did a lot of research including Bauer. This is a big
questionnaires, different types of
institution might publishing company in
magazines etc. I looked at different
distribute your media types of media institutions to see Germany and own more
product and why ? which would be most specific to than eighty influential
my genre. media brands
Owning over eighty The publisher I chose to The publisher of mixmag
influential media brands look more into was Bauer. is DMC (disco mix club).
This company do much
of not only music. For This is because it is more
more than publish, they
example FHM, Grazia, specific to my genre of also DJ, have a store full of
Heat, Closer and many indie rock, rather than rave merchandise and much
more. magazine‟s. more
I feel that Bauer would distribute
There are many different places
my magazine as it is something that it could be distributed, such
different and unique. It is for new as at concerts of my specific
up and coming bands, and due to genre “indie”, in a wide variety
my research I found out the vast of shops, and because we depend
majority would like to be told on technology, people could
more about bands that are download it onto their mobile
unheard of, and taking the music phones, computers, iPods or
scene by storm. tablets.
11. For my media Product I have chosen to target teenagers of 15
years old and above, who enjoy indie music. I decided to choose
this age group due to the content inside, even though it is informal
and colloquial language, it may be too complex for people under
my age barrier as they may not fully understand the terms used. I
feel that my magazine is more targeted towards the male gender.
This is because it is a more manly band, and the terminology used
is more appealing to men.
In my research I looked through many different media packs for
NME and Kerrang. This included what Genre the magazine was,
issue size, cost to advertise, yearly sales, regular and featured
content. This helped me in deciding who to aim my magazine at.
The age of the band I used (Aslan and the Cubs) also play a huge
part in being a role model to the audience as they are 3 years older
that the minimum, making youngsters look up to them and want
to be like them. The band are also the age range of prime readers,
giving them a chance to connect to the audence. Making them
more popular and also the sales of the magazine would go up.
12.
13. To get used to learning about the different tools and how to use
Photoshop, before the music magazine we had to produce a college
magazine which included a front cover and a contents page. This
was our Preliminary task.
Because I was new to Photoshop I made a lot of mistakes when
using the different tools, for example I kept rasterizing the wrong
layer, and I tried to rub out the outline of the cover star instead on
using the magnetic lasso tool.
Due to making these mistakes my college magazine wasn‟t as good
as I would have liked it to have been as the spacing's weren't
correct, and my layers were very unorganised.
Because I made alot of mistakes I wanted to make up for them in
my music magazine. When I rasterized the wrong layer, I corrected
it by naming the layers and putting them in the correct order, this
also helped with the organisation of my layers. I used the different
lasso tools to cut out my coverstars and banners/block text giving a
much more professional look rather than rubbing it out.
Overall this task has taught me alot about Photoshop and how to
use it. If I am set a task like this again I will feel much more
confident in using the software as my music magazine is of a much
higher standard than my pre-lim task due to the corrections made.
14.
15.
16. To attract my targeted audience of people aged 15 and above I stuck to the conventions of my genre
of “indie” whilst pushing the boundaries to create a magazine aesthetically pleasing and worth
buying. A technique I used to attract my audience was to include free incentives. On my front cover
I have used two competitions with very good prizes, these were to win tickets to festivals in 2012,
and to win a recording session at a famous studio in Manchester with featured bands. This would
excite the audience and hopefully get them to buy the magazine.
I also used buzzwords such as WIN and FREE. Words like this are pleasing to the eye and attract
people towards them as they become intrigued by winning and not having to pay. This is helpful
towards my magazine to increase the sales of it.
The cover star of my product is a big way to attract the audience. For example, if you didn‟t have an
appealing cover star nobody would buy the magazine, even though they are not well known, the
band I chose are up and coming, this will intrigue the reader as they want to know what they are
about.
The layout of my product is very structured. On the front cover I have split it up into blocks, for
example, I have the top banner at the top, then a banner behind the masthead, then the cover stars,
and block text, finally a banner at the bottom, these keep my cover organised without being too
boring. On the contents page I have kept it organised again, I have the pictures on the left hand
side, and the information about what is in the magazine on the right hand side. I took inspiration
from NME‟s My Chemical Romance double page spread. I took different components of it and
made it into my own, for example the photos that I took, I put in black and white, this adds to the
indie effect by making it look more urban and specific to my genre.
Throughout the whole of my product I kept the same colour scheme of black, white and red. This
was a popular choice when I was carrying out questionnaires for my research. It is also a
convention of my genre, “indie”, as it is dark and mysterious, however I had to be careful not to
push the boundaries of my conventions too much as I didn‟t want to make it look „too rock‟.
With the text I tried to address my audience in an informal manner, this lets the editor seem on a
social, mutual level with the audience. This will let them feel that I am speaking directly to them,
making it more interesting and fun for the reader.
