fifth front cover draft

I've had a very productive day it seems. This is the 5th draft I've done for my front cover, and the 3rd today. With this draft I reverted back to having more sell lines around the central model, but i edited the way the main story's sell line was written, as I feel this makes it stand out more from the other stories on the front page, due to it having more colours and overlapping words, which makes it more visible and draws the readers eye

Fourth front cover draft

After editing the positions of sell lines on my front cover I wanted to try out a new idea, so I tried to used a minimalist approach to my cover, removing almost all of the sell lines and replacing them with a list of artists in a line across the bottom of the page. While I enjoyed creating this draft, I don't think I will use it for my final piece, as while having very little on the page does look good, I think it is not done very widely in my genre to be considered as 'conventional', so it would not be done in normal circumstances.

Third front cover draft

After some going over of my current draft I decided to try to add more to my front cover, so I moved the sell lines around and added a new one to use the most of the space i had given myself by moving others around. While it is a minor change I am happy with how it turned out so I thought I should blog it

Media Institutions

A media institution is an organization that deals with the production, marketing, distribution and regulation of media products. While there are many of these companies to choose from, if I was to produce my magazine professionally I would want to use a company that already produces magazines similar to my product.


Some of the media institutions that produce music magazines in the same genre as my magazine are:

• Bauer Media Group - Publishers of Q and Kerrang! magazines
• Freeway Press Inc. - Publishers of Rock Sound magazine
• Alternative Press Magazine Inc. - Publishers of Alternate Press magazine
• Jann Wenner - Publisher of Rolling Stone magazine
• IPC Media (Subsidiary of Time Warner) - Publisher of NME

While any of these companies would be a potential publisher of my magazine, I could also go to a publisher which does not produce a rock music magazine, e.g. EMAP, who published smash hits magazine. Doing this would allow the company to tap into a new market, and increase their own profits without risking a loss to any magazines they currently produce.

Comparison: Alternate Press and my magazine

  

While making my music magazine, I used some ideas from the magazine 'Alternate Press' to pad out my front cover. The magazines above show the range of styles this magazine uses. The magazine in the centre has been turned black and white, an idea which I replicated in my piece, and the saturation has been changed. As a result this image can be associated with the 1970's, when in reality it is a modern day image and band. The image on the left, on the other hand, is in colour and uses a high angle to show the group of models. The final image, on the right, shows a close up of a single model. The use of colour, or lack of, makes the model stand out in my opinion as the paleness of the models face against a completely black background makes him stand out. This, coupled with the direct mode of address, makes this style of cover look quite effective at drawing the readers attention in my opinion. My magazine, shown on the right, uses a style similar to the magazine above it, with a single model close up taking up the majority of the page. While I like how the style I used for my magazine looks, I might experiment with changing the saturation levels of the image to give the image a different feel

Second draft

I've recently finished my second draft, which has used some of the ideas on my first draft and removed others completely. I used the image as the background, taking up all the space in the magazine cover, and put text around this to add to the page. I removed the red banner at the top of the page on my first draft, as I felt it would be too clashing with the full black and white page. I kept the image as monochrome, as I think this makes both the image and the text on top of it to stand out more.

New cover ideas

I have just had a revelation for my cover idea! Instead of using an entire band, I'm going to use a close up of a single persons face, which takes up the entire page. I have also considered making the picture black and white, as while not often used, black and white images are sometimes used in rock music magazines, especially in alternative magazines such as Alternate Press, who have had cover pages such as these:

While not often used, I feel that this is a very good idea to use, as it is directly addressing the reader, and pulls focus to the main story in the magazine.

Unconventional ideas: David Carson and Ray Gun magazine

Although for my magazine I would like to challenge conventions and make something original, I have been advised by my teachers to make something that is conventional and sticks to social norms for my magazine genre. I have decided that if I cant make my magazine unconventional, then I will post about an unconventional magazine to show what can be done if a genre is challenged.

For this I am focusing on David Carson's magazine, Ray Gun, which was an alternative rock-and-roll magazine from the 1990's which was cancelled due to low sales. David Carson was very inventive with his covers, putting the masthead in different places and making each issue very original and different. These are examples of issues of Ray Gun:

As these covers for Ray Gun show, each issue was very different from the others, in some cases being very difficult to tell who is in the magazine. For example, on the cover on the right, you can see that the main piece is about the band Jane's Addiction, but the other artists names are spread out across the page, making it difficult to read the names. While I like the styles used in this magazine, I can understand why the magazine went out of circulation as it is difficult to tell what the magazines are on about at some points.

Media Theories

This post is about the theories of how the media affects our view of society. There are several theories about this, such as:

Hypodermic needle – the media affects a passive audience by ‘injecting’ a message they cannot resist (discredited)

Drip, drip, drip effect – also called Cultivation effect. The repetition of a message in the media has an effect on audience (e.g. reporting about crime heightens fear of crime)

Two-step flow – the media introduces the public to an idea (step one) and the public discuss it with others and reach an opinion (step two)

Limited effect – media reports don’t affect us much as we are literate, sophisticated readers of text

Media dependency – the belief that we come to depend on the media (is this addiction/dependency or just a choice)

Uses and Gratifications

The Uses and Gratification theory is more about ‘what people do with media’ than ‘what media does to people’. It assumes people take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own life. The theory states that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs, and that people use media to fulfil specific gratifications.

Common reasons for media use

Information

-         Finding out about relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the world

-         Seeking advice on practical matters or opinion and decision choices (NOT relevant in music magazines)

-         Satisfying curiosity and general interest

-         Learning/self-education

-         Gaining a sense of security through knowledge

Personal Identity

-         Finding reinforcements for personal values

-         Finding models of behaviour

-         Identifying with valued others (in media)

-         Gaining insight into oneself

Integration and Social Interaction

-         Gaining insight into circumstances of others; social empathy (NOT relevant in music magazine)

-         Identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging

-         Finding a basis for conversation and social interaction

-         Having a substitute for real-life companionship (NOT relevant in music magazine)

-         Helping to carry out social roles (NOT relevant in music magazine)

-         Enabling one to connect with family, friends and society

Entertainment

-         Escaping, or being diverted from, problems

-         Relaxing

-         Getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment

-         Filling time

-         Emotional release (NOT relevant in music magazine)

-         Erotic/sexual attraction

Plans for music magazine

After trying to sort out a shooting schedule for the images to use in my music magazine, I have finally sorted something that would be useable for either a front cover or an interview. My friend is in a band and said that I could take pictures of them for my work, as they are in a recording studio in a couple of weeks, which allows me to get pictures in a professional environment. This would also stick to the conventions of rock music magazines, as they often have interviews from a recording studio.

First draft of front cover

This is the first draft of my front cover

While I like some of the ideas that i used for this piece, I feel that there are some pieces that could of been done better. For example, if I intend to use a close up of a single person's head on the cover, I should make it larger so that it fills the page rather than just the centre. I would also put more around the edges, as the cover seems quite empty. 

Recce

This post shows the images I have taken from my Recce into what I want in my magazine. I have decided I want to use urban surroundings for my double page spread, and use a single block colour for my title page, as these are used conventionally in rock music magazines

This area would be good, as I could use a high-angle shot to get the whole group of models in the picture, but could present problems as it could be in use often, restricting the amount of time i would have to take the photo. There is also the possibility that one of my models could trip on a step. I would also have to photoshop the sign on the wall out of the image, or place my model in front of the sign, covering it from view.

While this area is a good width and is well lit, there are some problems with this area for an image. The first problem that is obvious is the amount of rubbish and debris in the area. This could present a hazard for the models, as they could trip on it.

This area could be used for an image, but the narrowness of the alley constricts how many people I could have in the image. This location could also be a problem as the floor is damp and has some moss, which could cause a model to fall over, but the wall on the left also looks like the paint is chipping off, which could cause problems if a model suffered from conditions like asthma.

While this is not in the same sort of area as the other images, this location could be used for a double page spread, as natural locations are conventionally used. While this could be a good location for a large image there would be the obvious risks of low branches and roots coming out of the ground that models could either hit their head, or trip on. There would also be a problem if one of my models had hay fever, or something similar, as this could mean they would be unable to be in this location for long.