evaluation question 1 draft

I feel like music magazine I have created fits within the conventional genre of the magazines I have analyzed.

Masthead

The masthead of my magazine reads ‘waves’ I have chosen this name because as it is a music magazine I was inspired by sound wave, I thought that ‘sound waves’ may not look good as a mast head on a magazine so I decided to shorten it down to waves. This way it keeps in with the looks of a conventional magazines masthead as the average title is no more than 5 letters. The font I used for my title in the end was Arial black, I had changed my mind over the course of creating my magazine and I found that having a simple bold text was best as it fitted in with the conventional side and it made it easily readable. It also still links to my original idea in a more professional looking way. A masthead on a conventional magazine should be located at the top of the page, these examples of some of the magazines I have show that they are also slightly to the left. I placed mine at the top of the page because I thought that this would be the most convenient place on the page, also other convenient magazines have located the mastheads there. However I didn’t put mine on the left hand side like these other ones but the reason for this was I felt like the mast head would stand out more and it fit the page better with my picture.

Images and camera work

For the images I took I tried to take in mind the different types of camera shots e.g. close up etc. I have tried to make sure that I used these different shots and angles as much as I could in my magazine. The reason I went through the effort of all if this is because I found that it would be more interesting for the reader of they have a varied amount of images. I found that most conventional magazines use a range of camera shots therefore I tried to get a mixture of close ups, medium and long shot. These can be important because it also gives the reader a different perspective of the artists, for example a long shot is good because the reader can then see what they are wearing and could take inspiration from their outfit.  I have also kept a plain background in all my pictures because I felt that it made them look more professional and it mainly focuses on the artist this way. I also made sure that I used the same camera for all of my photos; the reason for this is so that there isn’t a difference in quality in the pictures. I took all my pictures on an IPhone 7 at first I didn’t know if this would have a suitable camera so in my first shoot I used both a Nixon D32100 and the IPhone 7 but I found they delivered the same quality once uploaded and printed out. The reason I chose the IPhone over the camera was because I could keep all the photos on me at all times and I found that if I ever needed to edit the picture it was a lot easier to do it on the phone Instead of the camera. Another thing that had an impact on the quality of the picture was the lighting, I had the use of 4 lamps and I had them in specific places to create different effects, mainly to do with shadowing.  All three of the conventional magazines use different camera shots; fader uses a medium close up, with a bit of a busy background. DIY uses a medium to long shot, with an orange backdrop, which makes it, stand out more. ID uses a close up shot with a plain creamy background. My magazine, waves, uses a medium to long shot with a plain back round. My model is in a similar position to the DIY front cover models, as my model is also sitting down.

Genre of magazine

The genre of magazine I have chosen is within the ‘indie’ music genre, this genre is again starting to become a trendy genre again with a teenage audience. There has been a recent increase of indie bands emerging now that the audience is there. The music is mainly based around the teenage life and happy times so there for it attracts mainly a teenage fan base, so because of this I will base my target audience on teenagers to young adults, from the ages 15-21 years old. Even though I want my magazine to be mainly focused around indie music, the magazine I have made has got an indie rapper as the front cover and double age spread so it focuses on more than just indie style, my artist reminds me a bit of Loyle Carner, as his genre is indie/ rap.  Fader magazine seems to be mainly based on the hip-hop genre, both music and culture. DIY is classed as an indie magazine aimed at about 16- 20 year olds, for a ‘cool’ and ‘edgy’ audience. ID is more mainstream/ alternative that plenty readers will find appealing because it’s a good magazine for a wide audience.

How are the artists represented?

In my magazine my artist is represented as quite an empowering figure as the pose he is doing looks like someone who isn’t scared and is in charge. My artist is seated but je is quite spread out and is looking straight into the camera, this shows that he has confidence behind him. The reason I chose this photo is because I want him to come across as a little ‘cocky’ and that he isn’t scared of the music industry. With this authoritative image I used it so people would take him seriously as he is still young I have made it so people know that he’s serious. Fader represents their artist in a basic medium close up shot; they have got their artist to stand out even though he is wearing basic black and white clothing. Even though these coulors would usually not stand out but he background is quite vibrant and is blurred out leaving him in focus. The flowers in his hands kind of represent a soft side to the artist and he is in quite a casual picture as if he’s being himself and isn’t fully posing. DIY magazine features two artists sitting down on chairs in a kind of casual looking pose, there style is more fitting of the indie clothing style, for example the straight jeans and rolled up at the bottom.  The whole front cover is pretty simplistic with big impact, this is shown as the background is plain but the colour orange they have chosen makes it stand out more than the average cover, the chairs they’re sitting on aren’t fancy and they can barely be seen. All of this fits in with the current indie scene as its quite stripped back. The next magazine has quite a different representation of the artist because it is the only one with a close up consisting of just the face and shoulders. The artist looks quite unconventional compared to the other magazines.