This document contains a student's log book and evaluation for their AS Level Media Studies portfolio project on producing a music magazine. The log book documents the student's preliminary task progression for designing the front cover and contents page layouts. It includes step-by-step explanations and images tracking the creative process. Research is also presented on the R&B and pop music genres as well as an analysis of established music magazines' conventions. The evaluation analyzes design elements and creative decisions for the front cover, contents page, and interview photography.
1. OCR Media Studies – AS Level
Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio in
Media
Preliminary Task, Log Book and
Evaluation
Name: Josh Neves
Candidate Number: 6964
Center Name: St. Paul’s Catholic
College
Center Number: 64770
Set Brief - Print
Music Magazine – Production
Preliminary Task Progression, Log
Book and Evaluation
2. PRELIMINARY TASK PROGRESSION– EVIDENCE
FRONT COVER
STEP-BY-STEP
I started by placing down my original medium close up on my page. I cropped
the image, placing it slightly off the centre of the page, using a pillar in the
image as a side bar. I then placed rectangles on the top and bottom of the
page, acting as a section for the masthead and the social media, I also put a
transparent circle on the top right, as that is what would be read after the
masthead. I then put in my Masthead, tagline and date, giving the magazine a
name. I added more rectangles, giving places for the puff promotion and cover
lines.
3. I then started adding my main cover lines. I wrote in my stories into the
rectangles previously created. I made the headings bold and the wrote a short
summary beneath it, helping a customer decide if they want to read it or not. I
entered the text promoting my puff promotion prize. I also added my price and
the links, and logos, for the social media available for the magazine. I added a
QR code which would link to my wordpress blog. I also added a barcode, at the
bottom left of the page, as it is useless for the customer.
4. PRELIMINARY TASK PROGRESSION– EVIDENCE
CONTENTS PAGE
STEP-BY-STEP
I used the rectangle tool to map out where I was going to put each aspect of my
magazine. I used different shades of blue, keeping consistent with the front
cover. I added text to the masthead, signalling that this was that contents page,
as well as the name of the magazine. I then added my photos which I took,
acting as supporting images for the stories. I also added pre planned page
numbers for my stories. I then added my headlines, as well as the summaries
to quickly tell the reader what the story is about. I then added my editors letter
and image, giving the reader an insight into the editors thoughts about the
magazine.
6. MUSIC MAGAZINE –
GENRE RESEARCH
YOU MUST insert anything you can find about this genre –
secondary sources (quotes from articles; statistics; other
magazine front covers)
Make sure your findings are neatly presented and contain
images where needed.
7. R&B MUSIC
R&B (rhythm and blues) music is a genre of popular African-American music that began
in the 1940’s. In commercial RnB music typical of the 1950’s to 1970’s, the bands
usually consisted of piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, saxophone, and sometimes
background vocalists. R&B lyrical themes often try and encapsulate the African-
American experience of pain and their quest for freedom an joy. Lyrics focus heavily on
on the themes of triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, freedom, economics,
and aspirations.
Rhythm and blues has undergone a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950’s it
was frequently applied to blues records. Mid 1950’s, after this style of music contributed
to the development of rock and roll, the term “R&B” became used to refer to music
styles that developed from and incorporated electric blues, as well as gospel and soul
music. By the 70’s, rhythm ad blues was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. In the
1980’s, a newer style of R&B developed, becoming known as “Contemporary R&B”. It
combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop an dance. There were
many mainstream R&B vocalists towards the end of the 20th century including Michael
Jackson, R. Kelly, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey.
There aren’t many subgenres to R&B, mainly because of how much is involved in it.
Subgenres include Contemporary R&B, Smooth Jazz and Neo Soul.
8. POP MUSIC
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its
modern form in the Western world during the 1950’s and 60’s
deriving from rock and roll. The terms “popular music” and “pop
music” are often used interchangeably, although the former
describes all music that is popular, and includes any style.
Pop music is electric, and often borrows elements from other
styles such as urban, dance, rock, Latin and country; however,
pop music does have care elements that define pop music. Pop
music usually consists of short to medium length songs written
in a basic format as well as the common employment of
repeated choruses, melodic tunes, and hooks. The structure of a
pop song rarely leaves the form of verse-chorus.
There are many subgenres to pop, all remain as popular as the
other. There’s Bubblegum pop, Christian pop, Dance-pop, J-
pop/K-pop, Teen pop and many more. All of these subgenres
retain the same type of structure as one another.
9. ESTABLISHED MAGAZINE
FOR MY RESEARCH
Masthead
Cover Image
Slogan
Cover Lines
Anchorage Text
Bar code/price
The cover for Q magazine changes from
issue to issue. Despite this fact, the
layout of the cover always remains the
same. They always make sure to
include cover lines and anchorage text
on top of the main image and masthead.
They include barcodes and their
company slogan on all covers. However;
their covers are missing a few things.
For instance, this particular cover
forgets the inclusion of a puff promotion
which would usually be used to draw in
the attention of the reader. They
magazines always have a simple cover
scheme, even if it happens to change on
different covers. This makes it easier to
read and more appealing to the eye, as
the reader is not straining because of
uncomplimentary colors.
10. Target Audience – Katz, Maslow, Hartley and/or socio-economic
needs
The target audience for Q magazine is very wide. They aim to sell
their magazine to those of the ages 30+ and those who buy CD’s,
catering to the older market of the music industry. Despite this, the
majority of the audience of Q Magazine are male (66.2%) with 83.8% of
them being between the ages of 15-44 years old. This shows their
ability to cater to a great range of ages and groups of people.
What is the USP of this magazine? YOU MUST refer to specific
conventions/stories from you research
From the research completed into this media product, I think the USP of Q
magazine would have to be the star appeal (Richard Dyer). Being a well established
magazine, Q is always able to get the most famous and most popular stars to cover
their magazines. They are able to interview the most important people in pop
culture, which draws the attention of customers, as they want to know information or
news in regards to their favorite celebrities.
11. PUBLISHER RESEARCH
Q magazine is a monthly music magazine from the United Kingdom, published by
Bauer Media Group. Q magazine was founded in 1986 by two men named Mark Ellen
and David Hepworth. They wanted to make a magazine because they were dismayed
by the press at the time, because they felt that people were ignoring an older
generation of music buyers who were purchasing CDs. Before being published by
Bauer Media Group, Q was first published by EMAP in October of 1986, standing out
with top quality photography and printing.
In its early years of production, Q was subtitled “The Modern Guide To Music and
More”. Before the single lettered masthead, the magazine was originally named cue,
referring to the act of cueing a record, but was later changed into the letter Q, keeping
the same sound to it, as to stop it from being mistaken for a snooker magazine. It was
also done for the fact that it would be more prominent on a newsstand.
In January of 2008, EMAP sold all of its consumer magazines, including Q, to Bauer
Media Group.
The magazine contains extensive reviews, featuring: live concert reviews, film reviews,
new music releases, album ratings and many more features. Many pages of the
magazine are devoted to interviews with extremely famous and popular artists, as well
as their “100 Greatest…” series.
The covers usually contain puff promotion, such as free CDs.
12. Masthead
The mast head of Billboard magazine can have their cover image
overlapping their masthead for the fact that its such a well known
magazine brand.
Cover Image/Color Scheme
The colors on the image are very dull and bland with only one
bright color. This creates a sort of mystery around the artist,
almost like a mask over her true character.
Sell Lines
The cover lines and cover stories of the magazine are quite
small, adding to the fact that this is a well known brand and
people trust the fact that they are going to like their stories.
Anchorage Text
This text links the image to the content of the feature of the
magazine. The separate color of Lordes name,
links it further to the main feature of the magazine, Lorde.
CONVENTIONS OF
A MUSIC MAGAZINE
Date/Website
The website information tells the customer where they can go to
find out more information, allowing them to be on top of the
news.
13. Target Audience – Katz, Maslow, Hartley and/or socio-economic
needs
The target audience for Billboard magazine can be denoted as being
anywhere between the ages of 16 to 26 years old. The magazine
provides information on the types of genres which would resonate
with a younger audience. The main audience are those who live in the
US, using mostly American Artists.
What is the USP of this magazine? YOU MUST refer to specific
conventions/stories from you research
From the research completed into this media product, I think the USP is the star
appeal (Dyer). Being a well renowned and trusted magazine brand, Billboard has
the capability and resources to call in extremely famous and popular celebrities, in
order to catch the eye of any reader. They can call in almost any celebrity, and have
the money to pay for appearances. They can then interview them as part of the visit
and get great material for interviews or spread on any celebrity in which they
choose.
14. PUBLISHER RESEARCH
Billboard magazine is an entertainment magazine owned by the Hollywood Reporter-
Billboard Media Group. They publish news, music/celeb reviews, events and celeb
styles.
Billboard magazine is primarily known for their music charts (Billboard Hot 100) which
shows their customers the most popular songs of a particular month, as well as good
albums. Outside of their magazine, the company also hosts events, operates several TV
shows and owns their own publishing firm.
Billboard magazine was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan. It
originally function as a trade magazine for bill posters. In the 1900s, solely run by
Donaldson, it began covering anything in terms of the entertainment industry. They
included things like fairs, circuses and burlesque shows in their publications but began
focusing on the music industry more than anything else. As the Jukebox, radio and
phonograph began popularizing they focused more on music.
The owner, William Donaldson, died in 1925, passing the rights to the magazine down to
his children. His children decided it would be best for the magazine to be sold to a
private investor in 1985. After this sale, the magazine continued to be passed onto
different publications, such as Affiliated Publications (1987), VNU/Nielson(1994) and
Prometheus Global Media (2009), who still hold the rights to the magazine.
Prometheus Global Media have said that, as of 2015, they have made it their focus to be
shifting for billboard magazine to have more of a consumer focus.
15. PUBLISHER RESEARCH
Prometheus Global Media is a business-to-business media company based in New York
City. The company started December of 2009, when Nielsen Company sold their
entertainment and media section to a private equity-backed group run by Pluribus
Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners. Pluribus’s stake of the company was
acquired by Guggenheim, giving them full ownership.
As a company they own and operate a wide range of different major entertainment
industry publications including Adweek, Billboard Magazine and The Hollywood
Reporter.
Prometheus Global Media states that their magazine (Billboard) is aimed to both the
passionate fans and the influential in the music industry. Other than the passionate
fans, billboard magazine is aimed to the executives, artists, radio DJ’s and anyone who
could be an influence in the music industry.
18. IMAGE PROGRESSION
I took the image and edited it to fit my front cover better. I selected only the
background of the image and copied it to my clipboard. I decided to adjust the
contrast, curves and layover to get it very pigmented. When I had found a
sharpness I liked, I pasted over my the selection in my clipboard and adjusted the
opacity in order to give it a washed out effect but still having all of the sharpness
20. IMAGE PROGRESSION
I took my photo exactly how I wanted it. Because this was only going to be used
as a supportive image I didn’t want it to be too distracting to the main image, so I
kept it simple. All I changed about it was the volume of the hair and zoomed it in
from a medium close up to a close up. I also used the liquify filter to reshape the
face a bit to make it look more like the shape the respective celebrity has
21.
22. IMAGE PROGRESSION
My photo was very close to what I originally wanted to be for my contents page. I
removed the background to make it all white then I put in on my page. I didn’t like
how it came out so I went through my phone and found an image I had previously
taken of a wall near my house, unfortunately it was already edited, but when I put
it together it fit well with my colour scheme so I kept it.
24. IMAGE PROGRESSION
I didn’t want to change my original image that much. From my original I
desaturated it so that it would be greyscale. From there I wanted to make the
contrast in shadows and highlights more obvious so I adjust the curves as well as
turning up the brightness and contrast of my image. Turning the image black and
white kept my magazine consistent and kept to the colour scheme that I had used
25. My social media links are placed at the
bottom, like most magazines
My coverlines are
placed around my
star, with similar
simple fonts, only
changing between
bold and non bold. I
used a colour
scheme to alternate
between Coverlines
and summary text. I
also added
anchorage text to link
to my main feature,
promoting my star
appeal (Richard
Dyer)
ANALYSING MY FRONT COVERMy masthead is on
the top left, due to
the fact that people
tend to read from left
to right when looking
at magazines. It is
on top of my models
hair, showing its
prominence without
covering my star.
Because it is only
two letters, it is
recognizable. My
tagline is kept
simple and
recognizable, just
under the masthead.
My barcode was put
at the bottom as it is
not important to the
customer. But my
price was placed
beneath it, big
enough to see.
Screen grab of Magazine
page positioned in the
Center of the slide
(Remove the BLUE box
once placed in as well)
My cover image is centered, with the model
wearing a hoodie. This keeps to the theme of
RnB as ,stereotypically, black males wear this
type of clothing
My puff was put in
the top right, to be
read after my
masthead, with bold
lettering to attract
the eye of my
audience
26. My editors lettter
gives customers
insights into the
thoughts of the main
editor of the
magazine. Its is
placed to the side of
my main image to
make sure that it will
be seen by anyone
who is reading it.
My category
headings are used to
separate different
types of headings.
ANALYSING MY CONTENTS PAGE
Screen grab of Magazine
page positioned in the
Center of the slide
(Remove the BLUE box
once placed in as well)
My headings give
the customer a
sense of what
they’re buying and
what is available to
them. My puff
promotion further
promotes the stories,
as it links to a page
in the magazine. My
supportive images
are used to give my
stories a face and
give them more
meaning
My logo is placed in my masthead, to make the magazine recognizable. The text
on my masthead tells customers that it’s a contents page and showing issue dates.
27. ANALYSING MY DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD INTERVIEW
My pull quote is used
on my first page of the
spread to attract the
reader to the interview
on the second page.
The important text was
been changed from the
rest, to make it pop and
to really catch the eye
of the reader. It is
placed on the side of
the main image, to link
it to the cover star that
the story is about. My
image details are also
placed on the image,
giving credit to the
photographer
28. ANALYSING MY DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD INTERVIEW
My Title/Heading
is placed at the
top of the page,
giving it a sense of
importance. It is
simply the name
of the cover star,
linking it to the
story.
My pull quote
brings an
interesting part of
the story to the
readers attention,
making them want
to read on.
My stand first is at
the top of my page
and gives readers,
who may not be
aware of the main
cover star,
background
information, like
their real name. It
also acts as an
introduction to the
interview, giving
the reader a quick
summary to the
story
My columns make the text easier for the reader to
29. AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
-
• Complete a relevant survey that asks no fewer than 10 people about their opinions
of your magazine.
• This should contain between 8-10 questions – one of which MUST be about your
Progression from Preliminary Task – Main Task.
30. The thing which mainly caught the eye of the people
taking my survey was the cover star, presumably
because I placed him in the centre of the page. I
wanted this to be the case because he was the main
feature of the magazine so I wanted him to stand out.
My Anchorage text was the next stand out, with 40% of
the votes. This was also good because that related to
the cover star which I wanted to be the main feature
According to the survey results,
everyone could roughly tell the genre of
the magazine as 100% of the results
were “Yes”.
31. Everyone commented on the layout of my
pages. There were repeated phrases like
“consistent” or “similar”. According to the people
who answered, my work was “neat” and has a
“good structure”
Everyone who answered commented
yes saying things like how they “fit
your genre” and they were “edited
well”. Some people just commented
yes, with no explanation.
32. Everyone selected a rating for my pages.
On average, my front page scored a 2,
with 8 of the 10 available votes. My
Contents page also scored and average
of 2, but with half votes. Double page
had the most votes on 2, with 7 of the 10
votes.
