What kind of media instiution might distribute your media product and why?

I think my music magazine 'Vintage' would have to belong to a big publishing house, as the genre my magazine is not very common in modern society. Because of this, my jazz magazine would have to start off as part of a big publishing house, and if successful, then it can later become an idependant title. My magazine would be distributed in music shops aswell as local general news agents, as it is a new genre of magazine it would need advertising in well known music shops. However it would need to be sold in newsagents for recognition as making the magazine too difficult to purchase could effectivly reduce the amount if sales. I would advertise my music magazine in music shops, and on television advertisments.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I think my magazine represents a younger generation of people, even though the theme is jazz which is usually seen as a vintage style of music. I think this magazine shows a modern twist on traditional jazz as my featured artist is supposed to be a young jazz musician. I think this magazine will change the way jazz is typically perceived as it shows that jazz is not only for an older generation, but it making a come back through new artists.

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

when choosing my images for my magazine I wanted to keep them simple, but still eye catching and professional. For my front cover image I chose to use a medium close up of the featured artist as the background. I did this as a replication of a real published magazine, as I used similar image and layout style as a traditional magazine. The images that were included throughout the rest of my magazine were mostly edited to silhouettes, which were continuous on the other magazine pages. However, the silhouette images did not follow the theme on my front cover. In order to make my magazine follow a consistent house style I used a continuous colour scheme of three colours; pink, black and white, and like a published magazine I also kept my page titles and texts the same. The only other image I included in my magazine, apart from my front cover, was an album cover of the featured artist.

Final Magazine

For my final magazine front cover I edited the image and made it sharper. I also changed the colours of the top band on my magazine to incorporate it more with the internal house style and added another band at the bottom on my front cover advertising a competition. Along with this band I also added an image of an album cover, which is what could be won.

On my contents page I changed the page title font as it was similar to the writing on my front cover. This page title font is continuous on every page to keep the house style consistent. I used the same font to write my editors note choosing a font colour in keeping with the continuous color scheme.

On my featured artists page I wrote up my interview using the continuous colour scheme, however I changed the font to make it clearer to read as there was a lot of text and it was quite a small print. I also included the album cover on this page and a competition at the bottom of the page which readers can enter to win a copy of it.

For my final page I not only changed the font of the page title, but I changed the name from "concerts and upcoming gigs" to "updates" as I also included the top 5 best selling albums of the week. I altered the layout to make it look more interesting and unique, instead of just listing the information.

Album Cover Ideas

For this album cover I chose to make the colours quite dull except the dominant colour which is red. I chose this effect as it compliments the album cover "Red". I also chose to write the artists name "Josie Jones" in contrasting colours to stand out, and to also follow the colour scheme of the rest of the image.

For my second album cover I chose to make it black and white to make it look more vintage and in keeping with jazz theme of the magazine. I used a font called "inked god" of www.dafont.com to write the artists name in. I also used a graphic of a treble clef to make the font look more unique and interesting. The name of the album is "Heart Beats", which was inspired by the image of the artist playing the drums.

My third image was edited to make the colour dull without it being completely black and white. I then used an eye catching font with a bold colour to write the artists name to draw attention to the album. To make the album cover more interesting I then used a simple font with a dull colour, made transparent, to contrast the fancy text of the artists name.

For this album cover I chose to keep it simple with just an image of a guitar and not a picture of an person. To continue the theme of simplicity I then used a white text and made the album self titled. To be sure the album cover wasn't too boring I altered the text to make it follow the lines of the image and give it some perspective.

For my last album cover I made the image airbrushed and slightly posterized. I also gave the edges of the image a black fade to make it look more professional. I made the font bold and simplistic, however eye catching as it is a large font and placed in the centre of the image. I chose to use a picture of the artist playing the piano to suggest the genre of music without having state it on the album cover.

Chosen Fonts

DRAFT

For my first draft I chose to use two different fonts for my page titles, both fonts were taken from Microsoft PowerPoint WordArt.

I then chose a different font for writen information in my magazine, also taken from Microsoft PowerPoint WordArt.

For the puffs and masthead on my magazine front cover I then chose to use another font which was bold and easily to read, up still in keeping with the theme of the magazine.

FINAL

In my final draft for my magazine I chose to keep all the fonts the same on my front cover, as I thought it made the puffs and mastheads clear, while still keeping the theme of the magazine.

I did however change the text "Juice ITC" on the pages that consisted of a lot of information as the text is not very clear to read when it is small. I changed this text to "Georgia" which is a lot clearer for the buyer to read.

I also changed the font of my page titles to from "Impact" and "Brush Script MT" to a font I found on http://www.dafont.com

Magazine Draft

Comparing Images

My first image and the image I imitated

I used this image to inspire my magazine front cover. This image of the reflection in the mirror suggests different personalities and perceptions of the artist, which may influence the context of the interview included in the magazine.

My second image and the image I imitated

I then used this image of a woman playing a saxophone to imitate to show that the featured artist is not only a vocalist but plays a musical instrument, as there is only an image of the featured artists face.

My third image and the image I imitated

I also edited an image to make it a silhouette of the featured artist playing the saxophone. This edit was inspired by this image of a woman playing the saxophone as a silhouette.

Questionnaire

I created a questionnaire to see what genre of music people liked and fearures they look for in a music magazine. The information i collected from this questionnaire helped influence my music magazine, as it gave me an idea of the different images and features I shud include in the magazine to entice the reader into purchasing my magazine and enjoying it. I asked specific questions which would influence the final result of my music magazine.

Moodboard

My original genre of music form my magazine was nu rave/electro pop. For this I planned to use very colourful and contrasting clothes and unusual poses when taking my pictures. This is why I included various models and artist, who don't sing the same genre of my magazine, but have a similiar fashion sense. I did however, include artist that do sing the genre of music.

After some research, I thought I would change my moodboard and genre of music to jazz. This is because I think jazz is not a very common genre of music and is very rare to produce a music magazine completely based on jazz in. In this moodboard I included modern jazz artists such as Amy Winehouse and Paloma Faith. I also included instrument typically related to jazz and models with a vintage image to represent wen jazz was most popular and modern.

Preliminary Research

The magazine I chose to look at was NME, which is a music magazine of the genre rock/indie. The magazine follows the same basic design which is continuously used for each issue. The title is situated in the top left hand corner is brightly coloured read to catch the attention of the customer. Another element of the front cover used to attract buyers is the centre image. This image is of the featured artist and also correspond with the masthead which is situated boldly to the left of the image, under the NME title. Puffs are also included on the front cover of the magazine to promote what features are included within the magazine.

This will help me in future when i create my music magazine as i can look at the cover and the layout and try to make mine similar to it so it looks more real. I listed the barcode, puffs, masthead, title of magazine, main article image, price and subheading. This is because I would be including these features on my magazine so that it looks like a real published magazine.

CONTENT ANALYSIS

Page 1
- Band index
- Date
- Contents [also mentions if it was on the front cover]
- Contents subtitles [e.g. news, radar, reviews, live and features]
- Offer on next issue of magazine
- Image of featured artist

Page 2-3
- ‘10 tracks you have to hear this week’
- Images of the artist mentioned
- Short review on each artist and their recent progress in their career

Page 4-5
- Masthead – ‘world exclusive interview!’
- Large image of Julian Casablancas
- Big heading of a quote
- Short article on the artist and his recent plans and decisions
- Editors name
- Photographers name

Page 6-7
- Interview with the featured artist – Julian Casablancas
- Images of the artists solo trailer
- Images of other artist and separate captions
- Short review on the featured artist’s new album and two of their singles.

After looking at all the advertisements and overall composition included in the magazine, it suggests this magazine is targeted at a younger generation that are mainly males. This becomes apparent as most, if not all, the advertisements featured in the magazine are aimed at males; adverts such as men’s hair products, deodorant and masculine alcoholic drinks. Other adverts can be aimed at both males and females, such as new mobile phones and their features, and also upcoming albums. Other features which may interest both genders in the magazine is upcoming gigs and concert information. This supports the target audience’s interests of a younger generation, mainly males, interested in a specific genre of music.