Research: front covers Q 2

This magazine features the killers front man Brandon Flowers, Lead singer of the killers and also artist with a successful solo career.    

THE MAST HEAD

In every issue of Q the masthead is always the same with it being a white Q on a red background this gives the magazine a distinct brand that is recognisable and can easily be spotted against any other magazines on a rack. The signature Q also creates synergy throughout the magazine as the Q is used throughout it.

The mast head fills up the center of the magazine the font of masthead is  serif, which makes it more eye grabbing  to human eye. I would use a similar font for the masthead on my magazine as it makes it more eye grabbing and would catch people's attention.

THE COVER STORIES

There are ten cover stories on this q issue, with it ranging from a traditional rock group like Metallica to a modern day pop singer like Katy Perry this is to try and entice any person to buy their magazine

We can tell that the killers article is the main article of this issue as it is given the most space on the front cover, another way which this is shown is through font size & type it is given for font size it is the largest and most eye grabbing while the font type helps as it is unique and bold like most sans serif fonts. Together these serve to attract people to the magazine!.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES ON COVER 

There is a banner on the front cover of the magazine which reads “ THE KILLERS BRANDON FLOWERS: STAR MAN”. This is in a sans serif font and as a white and pink colour scheme combined with the font it acts as a colourful stand out point to draw attention to the magazine and generate interest in the articles.

There is another feature known as a strap line “Porn, Suicide, Butlers….”. This serves the purpose to draw the attention of the reader to reading it; it may generate extra interest as the strap line belongs to an article about take that a band you may not associate with porn, suicide and butlers like take that.

The magazine has a slogan of “  A different take on music” this tells us that the magazine may not always share the popular opinion from the title and helps to generate interest as it generates the        question of in this case “ what is their take on the killers”.

THE MODEL 

The image does relate to the headline of the magazine as it is of the killers front man, the image is a full cover, and is a long body shot. The magazine  follows the convention of having the model look right into the front cover. The picture is sharp and clear with the background in focus.

The models costume and makeup matches the genre as it is quite glam rock in nature as the model Brandon Flowers is dressed smartly but has muddy make up, which helps to show the genre of the music.

Evaluation of key skills

I feel that since starting my AS media course the skills I have learnt and improved these new skills are in various area's, these are those area's I believe I have in:

• Photo shop: At the start of the course I had no idea on how to use photo shop, but over the first weeks of college I learnt the basics of the software. I can now produce a decent looking front cover or edit an image to achieve a more aesthetic look thanks to the help in school.

• Photography: My photography skills were already fairly well developed thanks to a interest in the subject. I feel from lessons in school where we have analysed magazine covers I feel like my ability to take shots with models as well as commercial shots has come on greater and developed my photography  to a higher standard. 

• Terminology: At the start of the course I did know that Media Studies did come with quite the hefty amount of terminology so when we were tasked with analysing our first magazine cover out terminology was quite limited, but now when we do this the quality of detail is much higher.

•  Analytical: I feel like this course as helped to deepen my analytical thinking, I now feel I can look at a magazine cover or any other media product I can see the intended effect of why they have done this.

Prelim: my magazine cover

My finished front cover I feel has a nice aesthetic look to it as the color scheme is pleasing with the gray and black. It also shows off indexical signs of what college it is which serves the purpose of a college magazine well.

Prelim: contents page

My contents page provides a good contrast in colours but is not aestheticly pleasing to the human eye as it is very "block like" with little blending being between the boxes leaving a lot of open space which does not look pleasing to the human eye.

Prelim: My rough front cover

I like my draft of my magazine from photoshop, I did have to make one rough change to the draft as the first title layout did not have enough space to sit on the page, so i went for the sloping title instead.

Rejection of images

These photos seemed like a good idea to try with the different poses & angels, but in comparison to the other images these three are simply not up to par to be used as the front cover image. The poses also seem unnatural and posed which is something I don’t believe looks pleasing for a front cover

Selection of images

I like these shots as the camera angels show the indexical signs of school. They show off the books and the school hoody which point to the signs of school and would all act well as the front of a college magazine. I also prefer these shots to the others as it frames the model nicely, I also brought in the rule of thirds to make the image seem "right"

Research into codes and conventions

Genre is defined "as a style or category of art, music, or literature" however what actually makes a genre?

The short answer is simply codes and Conventions.

"Codes are systems of signs, which create meaning. Codes can be divided into two categories – technical and symbolic.

Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text, for example the camera work in a film.

Symbolic codes show what is beneath the surface of what we see. For example, a character's actions show you how the character is feeling.

Some codes fit both categories – music for example, is both technical and symbolic.

What are conventions?

Conventions are the generally accepted ways of doing something. There are general conventions in any media, such as the use of interviewee quotes in a print article, but conventions are also genre specific."

Where did this quote come from

Genre has an effect on what codes and convections take place in the film or TV if we are doing film media. Take for example a horror movie certain convections may be that the entire cast of characters may be teenagers and that the main antagonist other wise known as main villain may be a man wearing a mask.

         But things were not always like this somewhere along the line a convection started out as a code, so the wildly popular idea of having the main characters be teenagers was once a code but received well enough that people kept using it and it finally become a convection to have this.

when a code is used enough it becomes a convection.

Planning my photo shoot

My plan for the photo shoot for my magazine cover comes in a studio shot style, my model for the photo shoot will be against a white / greyish background similar to most studio shots for magazine covers. However to ensure we get enough images of good quality and usable we will try allot of different poses and facial expressions until we find something that feel's right and works. To ensure the quality of my image is good and looks right, I am going to also apply one of photography's most important principles the rule of thirds.!

MY PHOTOS WILL INCLUDE 

• Use of strong natural lighting 
• No props required
• The model in clothes she feel's comfortable in
• The models natural look
• A variety of facial expressions 
• Numerous poses
• All in medium close up

Research: magazine cover 1

This magazine cover features David Bowie, a popular musician from 1970's. From the main head shot of the star , David Bowie it fill's the majority of the page. We can gather that the majority of the magazine is about him, this means he is known as the main feature of this issue. The font,decoration and underlining draw inspiration from the stars signature orange, blue and black lighting stripe across his face  becoming indexical as it follows the signature style of the artist with the colours and style of the cover being very flashy and unique in style like the artist himself.

This magazine cover also applies to audience theorist  Richard Dyer " A star is not a person, they are an image" as photos of David Bowie from now and back in the 1970's all are similar and push the boundaries of social norms similar to the artist.

Research into features of a magazine

Features of a magazine from Jshepherd1460

This is a look at the main features of my chosen magazine cover!

My response to the brief

My response to the brief is one of intrigue and excitement, as I have always had an interest in print media and the various ways it is produced. As well as the various techniques they use to catch the public's attention to sell magazines. I hope to learn more about this and deepen my skills in this area.!

The brief

Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/ college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid - out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a DTP mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program.

Main task: the front page,contents and double page spread of a new music magazine 

All images and text must be used must be original, produced by the candidate(s), minimum of four images per candidate