Vinay Kilaire evaluates his music magazine "EDGE" which uses conventions from real music magazines. The magazine targets a wide audience with pop and rock genres. It uses bright colors and graphics in the masthead to stand out. Cover lines are large and eye-catching to attract readers. Photography is professionally edited and anchors images to headlines. Fonts, layout, and lighting create cohesion across pages. The magazine represents youth and explores gender and artists to reflect society. IPC would be a good fit to distribute the magazine to expand their music offerings and attract teenage readers.

1. Music Magazine
Evaluation
By Vinay Kilaire

2. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
the forms and conventions of real
media products?

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
the forms and conventions of real media products?
Masthead
My media magazine is called ‘EDGE’. It is a mix of Pop and Rock genres so that it will have a wider range of a target audience. The
magazine uses many codes and conventions that I have learned from studying related music magazines. First is the masthead. The
masthead uses bright colours, such as white and bright pink. But the white can be changed or not even included depending on the
background colour of the whole magazine front cover. These colours are very eye-catching and it is easy to read the name of the
magazine. These colours are also contrasting against a dark red colour so that it stands out more. Because pink is a darker colour
than white, it has been placed behind the white colours used in the masthead to act as some sort of shadow. This makes it easier
to read the name of the magazine and makes it stand out more. I have also made the masthead look more graphic than
mastheads of magazines that I have studied. I have added an underline that looks like the ‘edge’ of broken glass, hence the name
of the magazine. It also has little pieces of coming from the glass to give it sort of a dynamic look to it. This also has a pink
shadow, just like the name.
On the contents page, I had modified the masthead so that it says ‘Contents’ instead of ‘EDGE’. I have also made it less graphic by
removing the underline with the shattered pieces. This is done so that it won’t steal any attention from the original masthead.

4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
the forms and conventions of real media products?
Colour Scheme
The main convention that I have used is the colour scheme.
The colours that are a part of the colour scheme are the ones
that I have used in the masthead. As I have said before, the
masthead uses bright colours such as white and bright pink
with a dark colour to contrast, which is a dark red. The white
and pink, working together, look very eye-catching and
graphic. Also, with the dark red being used to contrast against
the bright colours, it makes them stand out more and make
them more eye-catching.
I have used this colour scheme all around the front cover and
the contents page. On the front cover I have used it for the
masthead, of course, and have tried to keep the use of the dark
red and pink consistent in the cover lines and items around the
cover. On the contents page I have used it for the title , page
numbers , headlines and dividers for the different articles and
sections on the page.

5. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
the forms and conventions of real media products?
Cover Lines
The cover lines around the front cover look very
eye-catching due to the use of consistent
colours, font and the font size. The colours I have
used match the colour scheme I have used on
the front cover and the contents page. When
looking for what I would use, I tried to look for
something that was similar to the one that I used
for the masthead. I will talk about which fonts I
actually used in a later slide. The size of the cover
lines are the main ingredient to catching the
audiences attention. The size depends on how
well the audience can relate to it and if they have
an interest in it. For this I chose topics that relate
to artists that are very popular in today’s world.
I have also tried to follow the style of the cover
lines that the front cover of ‘Q’ magazine uses. I
like this styles because it allows the front cover
to hold a lot of information of things that will be
featured inside the magazine. This styles consists
of putting a lot of cover lines on the side of the
cover with the font being bigger where it needs
to highlight keywords that the audience will
interested in the most.

6. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
the forms and conventions of real media products?
Anchorage
An anchorage headline is where there is a headline
that gives more information to a picture.
In my music magazine, I have used anchorage on my
front cover and contents page. On the front cover I
have written the anchorage headline in big letters so
that people will see it first. I have also placed it with
the picture, in a position it would be easy to tell that
the headline, “Who is Axel Pierce?”, is connected to
the central image. I have also added an anchorage
headline to a smaller, less important story that is
featured on the front cover. It reads “Brittany goes bald
again!”, with an image of the pop star herself, Brittany
Spears.
On the contents page, I have used anchorage on
different parts of the page. This is because there are
different images around the page that need some
anchorage to them.

7. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
the forms and conventions of real media products?
Style of Photography
The style of photography that I have used is similar
to the photography on the front covers of music
magazines that I have studied. I have used primary
source photographs on my front cover, contents
page and my double page spread. They are
photographs of people who would portray famous
artists in my music magazines. The photographs
that I have used must look professional so that it
will make as though the whole magazine was
made professionally as well.
On the front cover I have used a photo that was
taken at a low angle, which is called a low-shot.
This makes the person look as if he is above
everybody else. I have then edited the colours to
make it blend in with background. I have used the
same image on the contents page so people can
easily find where the story, which the artist is
featured in, can be found. The colours of the
photo on the contents page have been edited
differently to the one on the front cover.
On the double page spread, I have used a
photograph that was taken landscape so that it
would fit across two pages.
These photographs have been edited using Adobe
Photoshop to make them look professional.

8. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
the forms and conventions of real media products?
Front Cover Photography
For the central image on the front cover, I have taken inspiration
from the magazine, ‘Q’. On Q’s issue from December 2012, it
featured a photograph of the leader of the band, ‘The Killers’. I
found the photography on the Q magazine to be good inspiration for
the central image that I would like to use on my front cover of my
music magazine. So I decided to use photography that was similar to
this. As you can see the two images are very similar. The chin is held
high in the light. On the ‘Q’ magazine, the artist on the front cover
has his head sort-of facing away from the light, whereas on my
magazine, my artist is facing towards the light. The light itself on the
‘Q’ magazine is a very hard light. You tell because of how sharp the
shadows fade in in with the light. This must mean that the light must
be close to the actual artist who is getting his picture taken. On my
magazine, the artist is put in a softer light because the shadows are
much smoother and lighter. This must mean that the light itself is
further away from the artist when the picture was taken. Also the
type of light is different. On the ‘Q’ magazine, the light is bright
white, whereas on my magazine the light is darker and a yellow sun
shade colour. This makes the light look warmer and ambient. Also,
the hairstyle is similar. The hairstyle is a stylish comb-over which is a
popular hairstyle in today’s world.
I have also added a photo of famous artist Brittany Spears. I have
used this image because there are smaller images of artists on the
‘Q’ magazine. This will attract the audiences attention because it has
an anchorage headline underneath it.

9. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
the forms and conventions of real media products?
Double Page Spread Photography
On the double page spread, I have only used one image
of the artist, who is also the subject of the article itself.
This is a primary source image which was also edited in
Adobe Photoshop. This is different from the rest of the
primary source my photography but also similar in ways.
It is different because the only colour that you can see
the light yellow/beige of the light that I have simulated
on my double page spread. This creates a classical feel to
the artist and his music. It is also similar to the rest of the
primary source photography. Just like the others it has a
light source and the photograph tends to act upon it. It
has also been edited to highlight the lighter areas from
the photograph and darken the darker areas.
The final image on the whole of the double page spread
fits in well with the title of the article “Stepping into the
Spotlight”. You can see this because of the colour, which
is a warm light simulating a spotlight, asnd also the lens
flare that I have added.

10. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
the forms and conventions of real media products?
Mise en Scene
The biggest play by the mise en scene is used on the double page
spread. The double page spread shows two pages that have different
kinds of conventions that all work together to form the mise en
scene. First is the background and how most of the conventions
interact with it. The first is the background. The background is a
gradient that smoothly goes from black to a beige-y yellow. This is to
simulate a warm light, a spotlight maybe, coming from above. This
forms that basis of colour and how the rest of the conventions on
the double page spread will follow it. The second is the photography
of the artist featured in the article. When taking the original
photograph, I made sure that the light source would be at a good
angle to work with. Then, playing with the colour correction in
Adobe Photoshop, I made it so that it would match the simulated
light source that the background portrays. The next convention, that
I have also made interactive with the simulated light source, is the
font. The font has been darkened when near the dark area and it is a
normal flat colour when closest to the light. This give the effect of a
soft shadow on the text. The last thing is the smaller element used
around the page. For example, the lens flare that can be seen
coming from the light source. Also the particle elements all around
the pages. All of these conventions and elements all work together
to create the mise en scene.
Mise en scene has also been used on the front cover, but hardly
noticeable. From feedback, I was told that the front cover used too
much white. So I took this as advice and added the same sort of
gradient I used on the double page spread. But instead of black, I
changed it to white. After doing this, I realised the central image
lacked a bit of colour as well. So I changed the colour correction to
match the background as well. This also gave it an effect that looked
like a soft light source like the one created on the double page
spread.

11. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
the forms and conventions of real media products?
Skyline
My Magazine
On my music magazine, I have also used a
Skyline. This is to be used as an extra piece
of information that can be used to hook in
the audiences attention. The way I did this
was to put in a piece of information
regarding a famous artist that people will
probably like to see featured in this
magazine. The font and the colour of the Kerrang Magazine
writing also matches the colour scheme
that I have used in the magazine. This is so
that I can avoid clashing colours on the
front cover. I knew that I had to use bold
text for they skyline from studying music
magazines of a similar genre.

12. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
the forms and conventions of real media products?
CODE Bold and Light
Font
The font that I have used the most is called CODE Bold,
the same one that I used on my magazine’s masthead.
The reason I have used this font is because it is very thick
which makes it stand out more and catch the attention of
people. This font also a very modern font which you may
see in modern-day adverts and brands. It is a very
smooth and clean looking font to use in my magazine.
Another font that I have used on the front cover of my
magazine is called ‘Harabara’. This font is quite similar to LaoUI
to CODE but slightly different around the edges. This
gives a different feeling when reading headline that is Harabara
written in this font. This is so the reader knows that they
reading something on a different topic.
For my double page spread, I used a font called
REVOLUTION for the title of the page and for the article
itself, I used a font called LaoUI. REVOLUTION is a
another font that is very similar to CODE but it has that
little bit of difference that would tell it apart from the
rest of the magazine that has used the CODE font. LoaUI
REVOLUTION
is a simple font that is easy to read so the readers will
have no problem. And to make it easier, I have made the
questions in the interview bold, so that the reader can
tell the difference between the questions and answers.

13. How does your media magazine
represent particular social groups?

14. How does your media magazine represent particular
social groups?
My music magazine represent different social media groups in today’s community.
The two main social media groups are 16 to 21-year-olds and Males and Females.
How does my music magazine represent 16-21 year olds?
In my magazine I have featured many artists who fall under the pop/rock music
genres. Pop music itself is aimed at teenagers and young adults. But there are also
artists who are teenagers and young adults becoming famous in today’s world. One
example is One Direction. Are a popular appointment here are made up young
adults. put in my magazine featured a negative story about them. In the headline
reads “end of one direction?”. This represents teenagers and young adults as being
stubborn and becoming upset with one another more often than mature adults. This
is what may cause a boy band such as one direction to an end. So this headline could
even be a possible headlining in real life because it is likely to happen.

15. How does your media magazine represent particular
social groups?
How does my music magazine represent males and females.?
In my music magazine, I have featured both female and male artists. Within my magazine you
can tell a lot about males and females in today’s society. For instance, you can guess how they
dress. On the front cover of my magazine the central image is a male artist called Axel Pierce.
As you can see he is dressed smartly with a blazer and casually with a hooded jacket and t-shirt.
You can guess how women dressed in today’s society by looking at the photography I have used
on my contents page. One of the stories on my contents page, with the headline “time for a
change”, is a story about a female artist. As you can see females also like to dress up nicely.
Also my contents page, if it is a headline that reads “Justin Bieber cheats Selena”. This
represents males has been attracted to the opposite sex more than females. Situations like this
cause male and female quarrels when they take the risk of being together. It is also things like
this that journalists and people of the media live for. When things like this happen that would
be a great opportunity for the media to publish a story about this that viewers would love to
see.

16. What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and why?

17. What kind of media institution might distribute your
media product and why?
IPC is a digital publisher and consumer magazine publisher in the United Kingdom, founded in 1958. The
company has distributed a range of magazines including popular magazine such as an NME and Nuts. There
are categories and magazines that leadership you suggest fashion and beauty, home interest, lifestyle, sport
and leisure, TV and entertainment and more. The company having such a large portfolio, the company sells
of the danger 50 million magazine copies a year.
Out of all the magazines that this company distributes, music magazines are its smallest market. With
popular magazines are like an NME and Nuts, they don’t distribute a music magazine that relates to the Pop
genre. Even though my magazine is a pop/rock genre it could possibly attract two new types of audiences;
people who were into pure pop music and people and people who like pop music with a bit of rock music in
there. This would be a good way for the company to go further into the music magazine market and would
help them attract more audiences.
I have also noticed that in the range of magazines that IUPC distribute, they have a type called ‘Teen’. This is
a category for teenagers. My magazine would be another good way to attract teenagers as well, seeing as
there is only one magazine in that category called ‘Teen Now’.

18. What kind of media institution might distribute your
media product and why?
Future PLC is in the amazing publisher in the UK, founded by Chris Anderson in 1985. Future PLC publishers
over 150 magazines in five different categories; technology, entertainment, music, creative, and sports and
auto. In 2006 it was the sixth largest media company in the UK. The company also owns the US company,
future US.
Looking at the categories that I am most interested in, the music category, the majority of magazines that the
company distributes specialise in guitar-related music. This attracts audiences are into music genres such as
rock, heavy metal and classic rock. The reason I am most interested in this media distribution company is
because they don’t have any magazines that go into the pop genre. This is why it would be good for the
company to distribute my magazine as mine is a pop/rock genre magazine. This means it will bring audiences
who are interested in the pop music genre and people who are into pop/rock genres.
My magazine would fit in well with this company as it will bring better and bigger musical audiences to it.

19. What kind of media institution might distribute your
media product and why?
Bauer Media Group is a multinational media company in Germany, founded in 1875. It was originally
privately owned by the Bauer family. It publishes a range of different magazines in different categories such
as football, lifestyle, motorcycling and many more. The music magazine category is what I am most
interested in. The company’s most popular music magazines are Q and Kerrang.
Q is a magazine which covers the music genres; indie, rock and alternative. Kerrang is a magazine that
specialises in rock music my magazine specialises in the pop and rock genres. Indie an alternative are both
music genres which relate to the music that would be featured in my magazine. But it still would attract the
audiences of people who are into pop and pop-related music. So my magazine would be a good addition to
the Bauer Media Group portfolio.

20. Who would be the audience for
your media product?

21. Who would be the audience for your media product?
When creating my music magazine I tried my best to aim for a demographic of people who are
into pop/rock music and you are also 16 to 21 years old. That does not mean that these
particular types of people would be the only audience for my music magazine. There could also
be older people who are still into the young age music. That could also be people who are into
new music that fall under the pop and rock genres. Genres themselves could be split into two
separate audiences; people looked pop music and people who love rock music.
People who are above 21 years old still should buy this magazine because even though they are
older than the target audience age range they still should be able to be interested in this kind of
magazine. People below 16 years old and may be interested in this magazine because the
younger age people look for bright colours and flashy images which are featured in my music
magazine. There may also people who are acting old age, say maybe 30 – 35 years old, who are
still interested in the new music that falls under the pop and rock genres. There may also be
people in this age range through our journalists and are looking for other magazines and media.
The magazine is aimed at both male and female people. You can tell that it is aimed at both
genders because of the colour scheme of the magazine. The colour scheme features the
colours dark red and pink. Red is a dark colour and goes well with pink. Red can be used to
attract both girls and boys. Bright pink is more attractive to girls than it is to boys.

22. How did you attract/address your
audience?

23. How did you attract/ address your audience?
To attract audiences to my magazine, the first thing that they will look at the front cover. On my
front cover I have used bright colours as it draws the I have many audiences. These colours
include pink, light yellow and white. I have also use darker colours contrast with the pipe
colours, which makes them stand out more. For example, I have used pink on the dark red that
is used in my colour scheme of the magazine.
Another way that I have attracted audiences through my front cover is the use of headlines.
The headlines that I have used on the front cover feature popular artists are already in today’s
world. I thought to myself that if people saw these headlines that they would be attracted to
them because they might want to find out why the artist is being featured in this magazine
issue.
Another way that people can be interested in my magazine, by looking at the front cover, is by
looking at the central image used on there. The image looks professional and people may want
to know who he is and why he is featured in the magazine.

24. What have you learned about the
technology is from the process of
constructing your product?

25. While creating my music magazine, technology with a huge part of it. To create my final product the devices
that were used were a camera, a video camera, and a computer.
I used the camera to take pictures of people who it would be featured in my magazine. There were things
that I had to think about when to taking these pictures. I had to take into account the size of what the picture
will be when featured in my magazine, the angle of a shot, whether it’s a low angle or higher angle shot etc.,
and where it will be in my magazine.
The video camera was used only to record a video interview for my demographic research. I recorded the
person being interviewed as I asked him questions from my survey. This was very helpful to my research
because it shows how long it would take for one person to fill out my survey. Since it was a short amount of
time, people viewing it wouldn’t have much of a problem filling it out.

26. Adobe Photoshop CS6 was the software used to actually produce my magazine. Since I had a lot of experience
with it on my Graphics GCSE course, I had no trouble using it. The production of my whole magazine was done
with this software, with help from Internet Explorer, to find any secondary source images that we needed in
my magazine. Using the primary source pictures that I had taken with my camera, I used Adobe Photoshop to
edit them and prepared them and prepare them for my magazine. The changes made the primary source
pictures consist of removing the background, airbrushing and light source editing. Any changes made to
secondary source pictures were also done in Photoshop. The changes made to the secondary source pictures
consist of colour correction and light source editing as well. To make these changes, it was a simple use of the
blending modes that can be used on top of other images. For example creating a new layer on top of an image,
changing the blending mode to ‘Multiply’ and then using the papers to your desire, you can see that it gives it
a nice effect. This is something useful and worth experimenting with in free time.

27. Adobe Premiere CS6 what are used to edit the speed art video of my music magazine. I have had much
experience with video editing software as I have a passion for making films and short videos when possible.
Adobe Premiere allows easy editing using a simple timeline view. This makes it easier to edit video clips and
audio together very easily. All I needed to create this speed art video was a screen recording software called
Screen Recorder Tool. This allows me to record what is going on-screen while producing my magazine front
cover. That then gets exported as a video file and can be imported into a new Adobe Premiere project.

28. Overall, during this process of creating this music magazine a technology skills that I have used are mostly
ones that I have already acquired from past experiences. Designing things in photo shop, and video editing
short video and general use of a computer is nothing new to me. But that does not mean that there are
some things that I haven’t learned along the way. The most useful thing I have learned is to use Blogger.
Creating a blog is something that people can use if they are not willing to create a full-fledged website. With
blogger is very easy to create blog posts that can have messages in them, videos, images and links to other
websites. It is also very easy to use and then it is very good when you can customise different themes to
change the look of your blog to the way you want it. It is a great way to show the process of creating my
media product. Blogger has been a new experience to me as I have never used before. I never thought that
I’d be using this sort of social media to show the process of this project. I think I’m using this from the start of
the year, I have adapted to its user interface and the way it works as a social media website.

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

30. At the beginning of the year, I didn’t have much thought of what my end product would turn out like. I
normally picture out the final product and use it as a guide. But when creating a magazine, something I had
much experience with, really challenged me. In terms of design I had a few ideas just brainstorming around
my head, but none of them seem to be good enough. The designs of magazine are different to what I’ve
done in the past. But sometimes I like a good challenge when it comes to design. So I started to think about
after the final project was done and how I would feel that I had now created this magazine and I know how
to create a magazine if I need to.
The main thing I was thinking about was the design because that is the thing that I am most interested in
designing something. But now know that there is much just taking a design out of your head and bring it to
life and creating a magazine. There are many things you have to think about, such as the chords and
conventions that I have used in the magazine. To point out a few, the colour scheme, the masthead, the
photography are the ones to stand out them last most. The headlines and pull quotes are very important as
well for attracting audiences. I didn’t know that there was also much research done before actually
producing a magazine and how this research is used to target specific audiences.
Apart from all the thought that goes into the production of a magazine, I also didn’t think that I would be
using a social media website, such as Blogger, to show the process of the magazine creation. Using blogger
was a new experience to me, as you know, but it has been a good experience because now I know that there
is something for people who are not willing to create a well website for whatever purpose. Blogger is a useful
website for people to keep up to date wall with your blood as you post things to your viewers.
Overall I have learnt a lot about the creation of the magazine and how much thought and time goes into
creating one. Even though I have only created a front cover, the contents page and the double page spread, I
can imagine how long could mistaken for companies to produce and is in replying number of pages and
content to go into it.