This evaluation looks in detail at my Media Studies coursework which took the form of the front cover, contents page and double page spread of a new music magazine called Past Masters. The magazine looks at rock and pop artists that it perceives to be a legend or a legend in the making.
In what ways did your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My initial idea when I found out about undertaking this project was to base my magazine on music from a previous generation and build my double page spread and image selection around a chosen ‘legend’ of rock or pop from the 20th century. Forms and conventions of media products are vital to the success of the publication in a market where things have to push at the boundaries whilst fitting in as well. One of the most important conventions and the first place to start is the title and Masthead. When a new magazine is produced this has to be displayed in a prominent position, with that in mind I chose to stick with uniformity and spread it right the way across the front cover without anything obstructing it. By doing this and making sure the title and the selling line were completely exposing these two key features I was able to convey the most important thing was the magazine and not anything that might feature in it. Another vital feature to consider when putting together the front cover is the layout and formation of the cover lines. These have been split into two categories which in turn allowed me to conform with the convention of using the left third to show-off the content of the magazine even when the full front might not be made visible. This was considered because of the popular space-saving tactics used by newsagents and retailers in which the magazines overlap on the shelf. In the left third I displayed 3 of my key articles within the magazine in an attempt to entice the reader. These cover lines came in the form of play on words such as “PM meets the PM” playing on the initials and a play on the title of a song in the line “Elvis isn’t dead… or is he?” I also name-dropped with a view to conveying the magazines links to famous and influential people such as the late Elvis Presley and the prime minister. The other set of cover lines were arranged in a two colour list on the other side of the magazine, it was a list of names of people featured inside the magazine. These were selected on importance to the magazine in an attempt to avoid leaving dead space on the cover next to the main image. The two colours were chosen purely on the grounds of fitting in with the chosen house-style and separating the featured artists and the magazines columnists and writers. There are two images on the cover, the main image featuring an actor posing as John Lennon which is paired with my main cover line. The image was chosen very carefully. Looking at other publications involving a single person as the main image I chose to use a medium-close up image giving a shot that shows the audience body language and facial expression and avoids leaving dead space in the way a medium or long shot might. The personal touch that a medium-close up image gives delivers the aura that surrounds Lennon in a mysterious and mythical way. The main cover line that accompanies the image is set apart from the 3 other larger features. The line and the blurb below are both aligned to the right of the page and made larger in a bid to make this feature stand out from the rest. Using the left third advertising to my advantage, I decided that the unique selling point of my magazine would be a free CD, the cover of which I featured on the left hand-side of my strip. As well as moving the USP to the bottom with my dateline and barcode I also made sure that the image of Lennon’s CD could be seen when my main image might not be. This was designed with marketing and retail in mind with a view to encouraging potential customers to pick this magazine out from the crowd. With the contents page I was determined to conform with the house-style created with the front cover whilst pushing the boundaries and including a multi-coloured theme that could be recreated with the background in my double page spread. The way I attempted to do this was by highlighting important features such as titles and section dividers in my main colours of blue and red and use the other colours in the different sections, such as features and regulars. Looking at the layout of my contents page I can conclude from the comparison between this piece and my preliminary task that following a standard contents design achieves a more aesthetically pleasing result at the same time as it allows the reader the chance to navigate the magazine with ease. When designing my double-page spread my first decision was to spread my article into a columnar layout maximising the space available for images between the text. I also chose to fit the red and blue from the two previous pages in prominent positions for important pieces of text and borders.
How does your media product represent different social groups?
The target audience of my magazine as a social group is a working man with a music oriented past. The main social issue for this audience is a lack of time for their music now they’re relied on both in their profession and as a family man. The way the magazine attempts to represent this social group is by highlighting particular features that maybe of interest to them and displaying the content in a layout they can function with. The vast percentage of the artists that the magazine features are from the 70s and before allowing the reader to feel his era lives on and endear the magazine to him as a little piece of his own history. The colour scheme of the double page spread is used as something for this particular social group to relate to. The psychedelic colour scheme is associated with the late 60s where The Beatles, Peace and Free Love were prominent. The particular social group I’m aiming for is not full of people that need to look after how much they are spending on their music but at the same time they are weary of being ripped off. A monthly publication costing £3.00 is very good in market terms and will act as encouragement for the regular buyers. In essence this group is represented as a section of the public that require a release from the stresses of day to day life and the magazine goes a long way towards offering that release with it’s light hearted layout of bright but not overbearing colours and well chosen content. The picture of the columnist on the contents page shows that the staff don’t take themselves too seriously whilst being determined to entertain the readers.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Distribution and more importantly correct distribution is key to success in all media industries. Film, television and radio have slightly different issues to contend with, but the ideas behind them are the same as magazines and other print media. The different media organisations are run in a very sensible manner, and because of this they will not publish two magazines with the same social ideas ad target audience. This magazine is however in a fortunate position regarding its social group and target audience. Rock and pop magazines are plentiful but this is as far from mainstream as is in existence in the magazine industry today. Because of this then, my magazine could appeal to any institution willing to take a punt on a new and different title. The least likely of the well-known institutions is E-map, now owned by Bauer Media. Their magazine Mojo is the closest currently in production to Past Masters. If IPC Media were willing to take the obvious risks associated with new products then this could allow them a firm gip on that corner of the market where nobody else has this type of publication. However, I think the most likely solution to this issue would be a smaller, independent company such as Development Hell. These types of companies would be more willing to break from the mould used by today’s music magazines and go out on a limb for something a bit different. The main advantage for a smaller company is they will almost certainly not be entering competition for their own products and can therefore only be benefiting from the production.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
As stated in the user profile, my target audience is quite a wide one which helps when the magazine is off the wall like Past Masters. When tying down a particular group though, the issues concerned look to be aimed at a man of 40 years or more. The magazine is designed for this purpose and to allow different people to relate to it for different reasons. The magazine is aimed at people who now have a gap in their life that music used to fill. During their younger years their music was their life, but with the development and change of music as we moved out of the 20th and into the 21st century, music died as far as they were concerned. The reason I chose this as my target was, on reflection of the current market I saw a gap that needed filling. A huge part of the history of music is based on the greats of the 60s and 70s and because of this their names will be remembered even when the music is forgotten. But with the target audience missing their music and their past, a publication with their musical idols gives them the opportunity to relive some of the past and the institution that distributes it the opportunity to corner the market with magazines about the stars from recent history.
How did you attract/ address the audience?
With the audience chosen the next step was to offer them something to encourage them to choose this publication. At this stage the market doesn’t offer any realistic competition from other magazines. So the issue is not offering more than the rivals but just offering enough to persuade these men, and in some case women, to part with £3.00 a month. The colour scheme for the double page spread and contents page doesn’t require a strict rule of three. This allowed me to aim at a late 60s audience by using a combination of several colours in a psychedelic theme. The artists featured are also vital to the luring of the audience. Using John Lennon as the cover story and USP for this particular issue is the biggest incentive in existence for this particular target audience. Lennon had hero status in life and legend status in death, because of this anything about his mysterious life, or devastating death would be of interest to this area of the public. But in this issue I have gone one better by uncovering something previously unknown by the public which I have used as my USP. As a selling feature for the target audience, 5 never before heard tracks by John Lennon goes a long way to eclipsing anything ever offered by a magazine. Little things such as the font and sensible layout chosen allow the reader to feel un-patronised by his product. Insulting the intelligence of your readers is a mistake that must be avoided. The language choice is a development of this theory, by choosing a sophisticated vocabulary the reader feels challenged but at the same time they are not made to work hard by tiring use of unnecessarily inserted words that don’t develop or enhance the text as a whole.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
The magazine industry was one that interested me before my media coursework began. Having had a little taster of the effort that goes into the production of a magazine whilst designing and making my 4 pages I can safely say that what is achieved regularly by all of these institutions charged with publishing a product is an outstanding achievement even with the best software and highest of skills. Before this project began I knew I would be relying heavily on basic skills with picture editing software learnt in my earlier years at the school. As my preliminary task was finished and my final piece was taking place however, Macromedia Fireworks, my chosen software for this project, became a programme I knew inside out. My ability to manipulate images in a way that gave them a totally different context to that they were taken in gave the enhancement of the pages required of them that. Before this project and my improved editing skills this would have been far from possible. The key thing that I have learnt during the production is that the better you know your programme and the longer you take to prepare, the better the result. Allowing for this I spent an awful lot of time experimenting with the pictures I took for my front cover and double page spread in particular, and using them in different ways as well as playing with the background and features like the models hair.
Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
When the comparison of finished products took place between my final piece and my preliminary task, it really hit me for the first time, how much progress I had made in the last two months alone. From knowing very little about the ins and outs of magazine layout and content I was able to produce my own house-style and centre-fold article. This was based on practising and trial-and error and an awful lot of time well spent. One thing that I learnt an awful lo about during this process was the skill involved in taking a good and usable picture having discarded many of the photos I took and holding 3 photo shoots before I was satisfied. The basic nature and low preparation of the preliminary task hit home just how much work had gone into the final piece and this was the difference that shocked me the most. With the preliminary task there was a feeling of ‘playing at being an editor’ where as the motivation for the final piece and making it as good as possible turned it from ‘playing at being editor’ into producing my own music magazine and to a standard I was happy with. As a perfectionist in nature it genuinely surprised me that my product lived up to the high expectations I set it, even more so when looking at my back-to-front background with huge areas of dead space that was the cover of my school magazine. The main areas in which I have learnt things from this project include the need to think things through and consider all options though. With the school magazine it was very much designed in the first way that popped into my head and stuck with. However, in the final piece I was happier to look at the forms and conventions used by other magazines, note where they were successful and use them as a basis for my own publication.
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