Main Task: Indepth research of brass magazines.

After analysing three Brass Band magazines (BBW, The Brass Herald and British Bandsman) I have noticed that BBW and The Brass Herald both have a long shot as their main sell. Another thing that I have noticed is the way that there is minimal text on their front covers. The Masthead on all 3 magazines are to the head of the page.

The BBW cleverly uses the colour of text on the cover lines to match the colours of the jumper of the main sell. In the cover of the magazine the main sell is stood with his hand in his pocket, this connotes a relaxed attitude. On the Brass Herald, the main sell is wearing black, this connotes a professional appearance.

In the British Bandsman the two models in the main sell are wearing suites, this connotes smart, intelligent and professionalism. BBW contents is a 3 column read, with pictures on the right, text in the centre and detailed summary of what to expect in the issue on the left. The Brass Herald uses a 3 column approach, but they have merged columns 2 and 3 together, they have included small icons on the far right column to match some of the key contents inside the magazine.

The 2 page spreads in both the Brass Herald and BBW are mainly 3 column articles, they include pictures spread about around the page so it’s not all text.

Research and Planning: Distribution

There are many ways for artists to produce their ‘creations’, they can either go mainstream or independent, but with anything there are many differences. Mainstream artists would be able to have a wider range of an audience profile because the record label would target a new market audience for their signed artist through their production department. A mainstream institution, for example Q would be able to distribute artists through their magazines, radio and also television. On the other hand independent institutions would be able to target a niche audience but would be able to get their artists a good audience profile buy including them within their productions, for example ‘Vice’ would include artists in films, books and also public events. The artists would be globalised as some independent institutions are known world wide ranging from Australia to Mexico. As there is a vast range of multi-media platforms, the music industry is being produced in many ways to help both the artists, labels and also institutions.

MAIN TASK: Magazine Research

The first magazine that I am analysing is Kerrang (issue no. 1132).
The magazine is targeted at a Radical Hedonistic audience, this can be portrayed throught the sign produced by the Masthead. The mast head connotes violence, dammaged and boldness. The Mainsell also connotes violoence as the far left model has his fists clunched together. The magazine also offers freebies, which will appeal to their target audience because the younger generation would benefit from having posters of their favorite 'rock' band. The magazine also uses coverlines to push their information out to their market audience. The use of straplines on the left hand side allows the readers to have a brief description of what a key headline is about.

The next magazine I am looking into is BBC Music. This issue is focused at the classical music industry. It offers a freebie to its readers, which in this case is a clasical piano CD. The main target audience for BBC Music are succeeders that are traditionalists, bassed upon the Jicnars scale the audeience would be a 'B'. In this issue of BBC Music, the creator has used a puff to enhance the readers mind and to allow the readers to see the class that the music magazine has. The masthead is in a serif font as this connotes a sophisticated style, and shows the importance the clasical music industry has. The use of 'Edwardian Script ITC' connotes a interlectual approach and also a classy style. The iconic sign is used to allow the audience to see what freebie they will revieve.

The third magazine I am looking at is the January 2010 eddition of Q. The mainsell denotes a wide range of music insdustry artist posing for a camera. This may connote style, class and entertaiment. The mainsell has many artists with their hands in their pockets, this could connote a layed back approach to the music industry.

MAIN TASK: Key Dates

8th January - Planning and Research Deadlines
12th February - Production Deadlines
5th March - Evaluation Deadline

MAIN TASK: Signs

there are 3 different types of signs in the world of media.

ICONS, Index and symbol.

The glass smashing is an example of an index as it connotes someone breaking into something.

MAIN TASK: Initial Analysis of a range of music magazines.

After analysing 5 different magazines, I have noticed that they all contain the use of Mastheads, Strap-lines and all contain a main-sell in their front covers. They use a wide range of shots from Long Shot to Medium Close Ups. Most of the magazines offer freebies to their audience (MOJO, MixMag and BBC all offering CD’s). From analysing these magazines I have seen some key features that I shall use when producing my magazine, for example I shall use contrasting colours to capture the eye of my target audience. Also by using freebies the target audience will want to purchase the magazine.

Magazines analysed:
http://cover.mojo4music.com/Item.aspx?pageNo=1794&year=2009

http://covers.q4music.com/Item.aspx?pageNo=6113&year=2009

http://modculture.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/11/30/nme.jpg

http://www.bbcmusicmagazine.com/currentissue.asp

http://www.cmsounds.com/newsind.cfm?id=208

Preliminary Task - Evaluation

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

The magazine that I produced represents a sporty magazine. We completed this with a Mid Close Up, main sell that is the conventional use in major student magazines. We decided to use some strap lines and cover lines as we saw that most magazines use these to inform their audience of the content inside the magazine. We used a sans serif font as we did not want our magazine to connote a formal ‘read’. Our font we used for our masthead connotes a sporty, exciting style.

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience would be students who are succeeder and are also Hedonists. The magazine is mainly targeted towards the male gender.

• How did you attract/address your audience?

We addressed our audience at first by offering them freebies, as the student audience would most likely prefer to be able to get a freebie from their magazine. We also added some radicals, by blending in some of the masthead and puff, and also the rugby photograph in the bottom left (cover) this connotes an intensive read. The typical functions for a succeeder are to feel that they have achieved their goal in life. The reason for the contents page having a couple of sport stars on it, allows the reader to believe that they are going to follow the ‘star’ in the future.

• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

From creating this magazine contents and front cover, I have learnt how to uses tools such as the ‘clone stamp’, ‘spot healing brush’ and the ‘magic lasso’ tools to a high level in Photoshop and have understood the concept of how they are used for main magazines to produce a high quality image. I used Quark Express to produce my contents page and learnt how to rescale an image to fit the area that I wished it to fill. I also learnt how to create invisible lines, to set a suitable column length to show through my magazine. Also from using Photoshop I have found out how to include fonts from an external source.

Student Magaizine creation (preliminary task)

This is my front cover for my student magazine

This is my contents page for my student magazine.

Preliminary Task - Planning

Connotations for my magazine are:
Sporty
Entertaining
Lively
Informal
Amusing
Chatty

The main gender for my magazine is aimed at the males. The main target audience is students who are into sports, we are also going to target parts of the magazine to those who are wanting to get into sports. The audience would be Post-Modernists who are archievers, this means that the audience want to have, to be and to play and they also conistantly achieve things. As the magazine will not be formal we sugest the readers should be of a lower and middle class status.

here are my designs for the front cover and contents page.

Preliminary Task - Research

All of the student magazines that I have found are all full of colour. Each Masthead is different, for example the 'Tell' magazine is in a speach box this denotes expression, shouting, communicating. This connotes a written form of communication calling out to all the student audiences to read their magazine . The mainsell in 'Re-sus' denotes parties, fun, entertainment, gatherings and glamour. This connotes a fun party experience where everyone is having a good time listening to music and dancing. The font in 'eye candy' is serif. This denotes swirlish style writing and is informal. The serif style writing connotes a 60's beach style magazine, it also connotes drugs with the swirls having more hypnotic effect to the reader. Both the 'tell' and 're-sus' magazine have freebies, this could denote gifts, advertisment and also cheap sales. This connotes a search into a bigger audience, as the audience may be interested in the gifts that are being given away with the magazine. The main sell in 'tell!' denotes ammusement, students. This connotes a wide range of entertainment that students can have when they are out with their friends. I think that the Tell magazine is targeted towards the female students who are at a public school, as the content is not suitable for the private school pupils the reason for my choice is bassed upon the content included on the front cover eg. Britney story. All three covers are targeted towards Hedonists, as they all include the aspect of fun and entertainment, and are 'urging' their student audience to enjoy their lives whilst they can still have fun.

College Magazine Analysis

Most of the magazines have a masthead, barcode, date and issue number, Strap Line, Main Sell. They also are filled with many colours to attract all audiences. The magazine I would most prefer to read would be “what’s on” magazine. The reason for my choice is the way the creator has used many colours to attract the specific audience. It also is filled with many relevant information. After looking at Squash, for students, the main audience type who would read this type of magazine would be students who are looking into furthering their education past college, and who are needing help filling out their forms for universities. The connotations in the image show an Informal, Fun, Educational learning to the students life. The colour connotes a cool, clear and fresh environment that students work in. The language used is aimed towards students and is not in a formal style. It is mainly a chatty style to enhance the readers attention.

New AS Student :)

Just started AS Media .... so here is my first post :)