The document describes the process of creating a magazine cover, contents page, and double page spread for an indie music magazine. Key conventions and forms from real music magazines like NME were used, such as featuring popular artists, including a subscription advertisement, and using consistent branding across pages. Research into the target audience and existing magazines helped inform design choices to make the fictional magazine as realistic as possible.

1. Media Evaluation KORRINA ALBERT

2. Final Edits COVER CONTENTS DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Similar to other music magazines such as NME and Kerrang magazines my magazine has a selling line. This is a typical convention of a music magazine which shows the reader watch that particular magazines about . I placed the masthead at the top of the page so that the name of the magazine would be noticed in a shop, this is a typical convention of any magazine as the brand is what makes a magazine sell. I have included the names of several indie bands which are usually features in indie magazines. I chose to use a single artists for my cover as my research showed that this was a convention found on most magazine covers. When looking at existing products I found that the artists on the cover where in a similar position that I put my artist in and were looking straight into the camera, much like my artist. The artists name is the biggest text on the cover making it the main focus, as this is what makes the intended audience want to read the magazine. This is a convention used in many music magazines. My magazine cover shows the necessary information to sell the magazine (bar-code, price and date).

4. After creating a profile for my target audience I found that the most similar successful existing magazine was NME. I did some in-depth research into what conventions they used, as I realised that my magazine need to be similar to NME in some ways due to our similar potential readers. When I was looking at the kinds of artists NME featured on their cover I found that a large proportion of the recent artists on the cover were female. This was largely to do with the recent popularity of several female indie pop artists such as, Florence Welch, Ellie Goulding,Laura Marling, Little Boots and MIA who have all recently been in NME magazine.

5. Both my magazine and this issue of NME use similar dark colours red , blue and black as these are colours used across the indie genre from clothing to music videos. The images used are also similar as they are both mid-shots which overlap the masthead. However I chose to use a white background for my image as I felt that it was important for the text on the magazine cover to stand out and to get lost amongst a dark background like the NME cover. Both magazine also show similar features such as a list of bands that are in this issue, a quote from the cover artist, details of articles in the magazine and information on article on popular indie music festival Reading and Leads. Although I chose to not feature an article on Reading and Leads but to give the reader an opportunity to win tickets to the festival in order to persuade them to buy the magazine. Despite there being some similarities between my magazine and this existing magazine I chose to have a less cluttered magazine cover. I felt that this makes my cover more fitting for the indie genre and it also makes it much easier to read. By only using the one image I was able to focus the attention on the cover artists rather than other less important aspects of the cover.

6. I have used and image of the magazine editor as when looking at several different types of magazine I found this was a convention that many of them followed. I placed the imagine in a polaroid frame as these polariods are particularly popular amongst my indie target audience. I also made a short editors letter as again I found this is lots of different magazine. I also chose to end the article with the editors signature as it makes the letter more personal and professional The photograph used on the contents page is also used on the double page spread making it consistent, lots of music magazines use the main article across the cover, contents page and double page spread. This image is the largest image on the contents page as this is where I wanted the readers eye to be drawn to. NME Contents page Here I have the main articles that are inside the magazine. These also match those that are on the cover this is shown by them having “COVER STORY” next to them to show they are the main articles. This makes it consistent and therfore more like a “real” music magazine. There is also text that says “In the cut this week” which again shows consistency as it includes the name of the magazine. It is also very similar to what other magazines on their contents page, which makes it a convention of a music magazine. At the bottom of mycontents page I have put a subscripon advertisement as this generates a lot of money for magazines. Almost all music and other types of magazines have the optition to subscribe to the magazine. Therefore showing that you are able to subscribe to the magazine on the contents page is a typical convention found in magazines.

7. I decided not to do a question and answer interview. This is because my research into other music magazines showed that indie magazines contained articles about the interview, as it gives more of an insite into theartists. This is due to the mixture of facts about the artists, their answer and the opinion of the writer. I set my my article out into two colums as this is a covention of almost all music magazines and put the article on just one side of the page as this allowed all of the image to be shown. Again I have used the magazines name and logo showing that the same style flows throughout. The image I used takes up the entire page making it the main focus. In most music magazines double page spreads the use similar kinds of images to make the artists the main subjet. Most double page spreads usually feature photographs of the artists taken in a studio then altered in photoshop, however I chose to take my picture outside on brighton beach. I did this because I felt the artists being in what would seem to be a “cool” location would be much more effective. I made another logo for the double page spread to show that it was a regular feature in the magazine. This is similar to “Radar” in NME. Here I have writen the name of the photographer,hairdresser, location and stylist. This is something found in many fashion magazines but not as often in music magazines. I chose to add this in as my target audience are young people with a keen interest in fashion. Making them likely to be interested in the creation of the artists style. This means that this doesn't follow typical codes and conventions of exsisting products but is combining ideas from other genres of magazines, due to the target audiences clear wants. This is a brief summary of the article so that the reader can know what the article is about if they are skimming through the magazine. This is done in almost every article whether it be in a newspaper, online or in a magazine.

8. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

9. How does your media product represent particular social groups? My magazine represents the particular social group of young indie people. I did this by using an artist of a similar age group to the readers and by using some slang in the article that the readers may use. The artist was also in the genre of indie, therefore the audience could relate to her. As the readers enjoy going to concerts and festivals I used the music festival reading on the cover of the magazine, which shows their interests were taken into account when creating the magazine. When style my fictional artist a gave her typical indie looking clothes with a vintage style as this is what the readers are likely to wear. The location for my artists photo-shoot was Brighton which is largely populated with my target audience of students that enjoy indie music, therefore they are being represented as the artist is also a student. Indie Social Group They are very interested in new indie music. Because of this they spend a lot of time attending gigs and festivals. They spend a large amount of their money on electrical goods such as, iPhones, laptops and computer games. The social group mostly shop in high street stores that sell “vintage look” clothes. As well as this they also buy a lot of low end branded clothing, including Fred Perry, converse and vans.

10. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I would have IPC media distribute my magazine. I’d use this company as they already distribute NME and UNCUT magazine which are similar magazines to mine as they have have a similar audience. Therefore they would have experience in distributing indie magazines and would be able to distribute my magazine more successfully than other distribution companies that may have less experience in the . I would like to distribute my magazines in several popular retailers that are well known for selling magazines. I would also like to distribute my magazine as an online subscription, similar to the times online subscription. indie magazine genre. IPC media has a very large share of the magazine market, this could be an advantage however it does mean that there will be more competition amongst the magazines at the distribution company

11. How did you attract/address your audience? By giving the readers a chance to win tickets to popular indie festival Reading and Leads, I was able to attract my target audience to my magazine. As I have a young audience of 16-24 year olds, who are mostly students (meaning they have less disposable in come) they are likely to want a chance to go to a festival for free. Therefore this makes my target audience look at the magazine and want to buy it. By choosing a cover artist that is similar to popular indie artists at the moment, my audience would be more likely to want to buy and read about this artists. Also the other artists mentioned on the cover are very popular with my target audience, this means that my target audience may want to buy the magazine so that they can read about one of the artists featured on the cover e.g. Dan Black As well as the potential readers being attracted to the artists on the cover they may also be attracted to the general style of the magazine when they flick through the pages (seeing the contents and double page spread). This may because it has a similar look to other popular music and lifestyle magazines such as NME, ID magazine, Pop and Uncut.

12. What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing this product? Through out the process of creating my music magazine I have learnt a lot about how technology can be used when making a music magazine. I began my media project by using the less advanced computer programme publisher, to create my preliminary task. Before creating my music magazine I had to carry out in depth research on music magazines and my potential target audience, I used technology in several different ways to do this. The most useful piece of technology was the internet, by using the internet I was able to look at other existing products using google images and photobucket. I was also able to look that the magazine websites them selves, I found NME.com and Kerrang.com were particularly helpful due to there vast amount of content. After finding all of my research I used blogger to document the process of our the coursework, where we regularly updated the research I had done making it easier to refer back to when making the music magazine. When uploading research and planning onto our blogs we I used the website disharmoniousness/ to show presentations I had made about existing products. I was also able to add helpful links to my blog making it easier to find them when I was in the process of making my magazine cover, contents page and double page spread. As well as this blogger allowed me to get feedback from my target audience of 16-24 year olds as this age group are likely to use the internet regularly.

13. When creating my actually magazine I had to use new technical equipment to take the photographs these included a digital camera and a tripod. Using these pieces of equipment I was able to create more professional magazine images. Once I had taken my final photographs I used the professional computer software, adobe photoshop. This is similar to the software that magazines used which enabled me to create a more realistic magazine as the good quality editing gave my magazine a professional finish. Using photoshop also allowed me to manipulate photographs I had taken, which helped me to give them a more dull typical “indie” look. Photoshop also helped me to create more original fonts and logos as I was able to find original fonts on websites such as dafonts.com. After I had downloaded these fonts I used adobe photoshop to change their colour, size and effects to make my magazine look more like existing products. DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD LOGO THE CUT LOGO GIG GUIDE LOGO

14. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression for it to the full product?

15. I have learnt many new still since making my preliminary project, this is due to new research, planning and technological skills that have gained throughout making my indie music magazine. When I made my college magazine I had not done any research into my target audience or other similar existing products, this meant that I was unaware of what my target market wanted and what my magazine cover should look like. As I did not know what conventions of magazines I had to follow. The new technological skills I gained helped me to create a more professional looking magazine firstly this is because of the quality of pictures that I had take. By using a higher quality camera I was able to take more professional photographs which gave my magazine and overall more realistic look. The most important new piece of technology I used was the change from editing software publisher to the more advanced photoshop. This was a considerably better software for making a magazine as I was able to edit my photographs, create my own logos and easily reposition different parts of the magazine. The research and planning I had done for my music magazine helped me to shape my magazines style. It also helped with the content of the magazine as it showed what sort of artists I needed to use and what kind of things people wanted to read about. I learnt this through doing a questionnaire and looking at music magazines that are popular amongst my target audience.