Virtual check-list of things I've done and have left to do

What I have done

• Wrote my DPS article 
• Arranged a photo shoot for my DPS
• Done two DPS analysis 
• Done two front cover analysis 
• Done one contents page 
• Changed all post titles
• Started to read through all posts for errors 

What I have yet to do 

• One DPS analysis
• One front cover analysis 
• Two contents page analysis 
• Proof read all posts I am writing 

Planning: My TA survey

Questions- a brief survey about music, magazines and media

1) Out of the following instruments what would you prefer to learn? ( Please tick one )

• Guitar
• Drums
• Bass
• Piano
• Other ( Please specify )

2) What articles would you like to see in a music magazine that has a focus on the instruments?

3) Do you find bad language offensive?

4) What freebies would you want out of a music magazine 

5) Out of these mastheads which four do you prefer? ( Tick next to it) 

 6) Do you like competitions where you could win a prize?

7) Do you go to gigs?

8) Favourite band or bands? 

9) Do you prefer male's or females on the front cover of the magazine? 

10) Do you like it when there are ads in the magazine?

11) what colour schemes do you like?

12) do you like it when before an interview there is background information given about?

13) What makes you want to buy a magazine?

14) Would a free download interest you if it was offered? 

15) Do you use spotify , Itunes or any other music provider?

16) Do you prefer a weekly or monthly magazine?

17) What appeals to you when you look at a front cover of a magazine?

18) Would you like a main article that helped you learn a instrument appeal to you?

19)  In a music magazine would reviews of instruments interest you or help you make a decision if you were looking to buy an instrument ?

20) What is the one thing that makes you think a magazine is good after you have read it

Research: DPS Q 2

This is the DPS from Q from the issue of July of 2014.


The masthead 
The mast head for the DPS is a bright white piece of text which reads " Battle Cry" with a red back ground banner . The red banner promotes synergy as it matches Q's signature red colour scheme and format. The masthead serves the purpose of informing the viewer what the article is about, the masthead for this DPS does that efficiently as by having it in the large sans serif font it makes it blocky and eye grabbing so the viewer of the text straight away makes the connection to what its about. The masthead is also quite rock and roll in its design which reflects the bands new direction.


Puffs
The puff used in this DPS is one with a black bus with the text "On the road with war paint" surround by a red background. By once again having it with a red back ground it matches the banner that the masthead is placed on as well as Q's signature house style of red which is reflected all the way thought the magazine creating synergy either with the colour red and the letter Q. A puff serves the purpose promoting features in the magazine, this puff breaks convention by not being on the cover but on the dps and informs the reader about how the article was written.


Cover lines
Traditionally the cover line serves the purpose of referring to the main points of the article. This cover line does this and draws focus to the bands change in attitude from seeming "airy-fairy" to " more rock'n'roll" .It also attempts to update their audience as they try to attract a older one as they use more adult term's like " A mushroom trip".




Language 
The language off the double page spread is shown as being written in the style of being a casual register domain, as the article is written by the author as she travels along with the band and she writes as if she as speaking to a friend. This has the effect of making the viewer feel connected to the writer and that they are there with them experiencing the thing's the writer is.


The image
The image is a wide group shot and also breaks convention by having the masthead interrupted by one of the band members hands. The shot also shows them in a urban environment which shows to the audience without trying to that they are just like everyday people instead of having them posed in a studio. The shot could off also been taken like this as it was taken on tour.

Theory
Dyer and Mulvey can be applied to this DPS. Mulvey "The gaze"  is applied to the cover , the fact that they want to look pretty follows Mulvey's  despite the image lacking voyeurism. 

Dyer can be applied to this DPS " A star is an image, not a real person". Their star image is a natural one which makes them look appealing to other young people and then enables their TA to relate to them.


How this has influenced me 
This has influenced me as it has given me ideas for poses I can make people do when it comes to shooting my DPS, as well as ideas for how i can lay out my page.

Research: Acoustic front Cover 6

This is the front cover for acoustic magazine featuring The Band Perry from February of 2014.

The main image
The main image of the cover is a wide shot - long full body shot  with a white background. The lead singer ( Kimberly) facing forwards to show us how she is the singer of the band, this meets conventions as she is looking into camera and developing a relationship with the TA. The shot also shows their guitars, their music is important to them and personalised. These are also symbolic signs [ Barthes] signifying their calm and collected star image.

The font
The features are displayed in a serif font in bold this combines with multiple features of both font types, such as the boldness and eye catching of the sans serif and aesthetically pleasing style of the serif font. The majority of the font is gold, this symbolic sign signifies wealth and quality.


Features of the magazine
There are multiple features in this issue of the magazine. One such feature is the cover line on the cover line. The cover line serves the purpose of referring to important or main articles inside or high light something that may be a selling point. In this issue  the cover line serves the purpose of informing the reader about the change in the bands attitude but does it in a way to generate interest. " Channelling their inner arena rockers"

One other feature of the magazine is the multiple banners that it is used on the cover, their is one located at the bottom of the magazine. This banner is used to highlight what pieces of equipment have been reviewed as ultimately the magazines genre is technical equipment so they need to have be a main part of the magazine. The other banner serves the purpose of looking aesthetic to make the cover line stand out more to the human eye.

The final banner is located at the top of the page. It informs the viewer about what bands have been interviewed in the issue. It also located at the top of the magazine as when it is being sold on  rack that is all that can be seen is the top of the magazine and it's mast head, leaving that as the only thing that can be seen. This is to try and entice the reader to reading it.

Genre Theory
Mulvey can be applied to this cover " Male gaze". The lead singer Kim is facing into the camera with her make up done to draw attention to her eyes this also serves the purpose of enticing the readers attention to the magazine with the gal of selling it.

How this has influenced me
This has influenced me by giving me ideas on how I could apply banners to my front cover, and how to make them effective. as well as showing me properly how ceratin colour represent certain things.

Research: Dyer

RICHARD DYER
That a star is an image that has been made from a range of materials (e.g. advertising, magazines, films etc.). He goes on to say that stars depend on subsidiary media such as Tv, radio and so on, to allow themselves to create a certain image and attract their target audience by being made up of a variety of meanings which bring the audience to them. Overall, the star is incoherent incomplete and open. Due to the incoherence of this star image will mean that the audience will strive on understanding or completing the overall star image.


How is this achieved?
A continued consumption of the star through their products. 

 He explains 2 paradoxes:
Paradox 1: 
The star must be ordinary and extraordinary. This will attract consumers to the star due to the originality. 
Paradox 2: 
The star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer. 

Hegemony
Dyer explains this as the star is used to position the consumer in relation to the dominant social values. However, this depends upon the artist. Either the audience is positioned against the mainstream, within the mainstream or somewhere in between.

Below is a quote that Richard Dyer said summarising his theory.

“In these terms it can be argued that stars are representations of persons which reinforce, legitimate or occasionally alter the prevalent preconceptions of what it is to be a human being in this society.  There is a good deal at stake in such conceptions.  On the one hand, our society stresses what makes them like others in the social group/class/gender to which they belong.  This individualising stress involves a separation of the person's "self" from his/her social "roles", and hence poses the individual against society.  On the other hand society suggests that certain norms of behaviour are appropriate to given groups of people, which many people in such groups would now wish to contest (eg the struggles over representation of blacks, women and gays in recent years).  Stars are one of the ways in which conceptions of such persons are promulgated.”

Research: Slidely

Slidly for target audience by Slidely Slideshow

Research: word cloud target audience

Research: DPS acoustic 1

This is the DPS for acoustic magazine of winter 2013.

The model

The model is the star of this issue Gabrielle Aplin, she is dressed in a bright red Jumper that gives a contrast between her dark jeans making eye grabbing and when you open it to the DPS. The shot was taken in a studio and makes heavy use of artificial light which leads to a better quality of image, the shot also makes use of rule of thirds to help it by making it balanced and eye pleasing.

The image

The start of the synopsis of the article is in bold, which gives it a clear starting point and draws attention to how she built her life, it wasn't just discovered from the start. She built it from the ground up the article and photo both reflect it.

The model
The model is the star of this issue Gabrielle Aplin, she is dressed in a bright red Jumper that gives a contrast between her dark jeans making eye grabbing and when you open it to the DPS. The shot was taken in a studio and makes heavy use of artificial light which leads to a better quality of image, the shot also makes use of rule of thirds to help it by making it balanced and eye pleasing.

The image that is used, for the DPS is a very well taken shot. The models bright red jumper and dark mahogany guitar really draw in a contrast between the browns of the bench and blue background. This makes the shot eye catching and appealing to the reader as it is aesthetically pleasing in nature. The shot itself reflects on the artist’s nature and how she gained success from her guitar, you can tell she cares about her guitar as it is sat on the bench with her like a regular person would be.

 Representation theory

Mulvey believed in "the gaze”. Mulvey is quite a rare theorist which can be applied to select things such as advertising an artist who doesn't have a defined brand (Like Gabrielle Aplin) or when you are trying to entice someone into buying a product. It is used in this DPS by the model as she is sat on the bench in a flirtatious pose with very well done make up looking enticing to the camera.

One audience  representation theorist which can be applied is Dyer who believed in this quote “A star is an image, not a real person" her star image is quite natural and similar to when she wasn't as known making her seem more relatible to her audience .

How this influenced me

This gave me ideas on how I should pose me model for my DPS and also what kind of shots I should aim for when it comes to the photo shoots. As well as ideas on how to arrange the text in it.

Research: Fonts

These are some of the fonts I am considering using for the masthead for my technical equipment magazine.

This is a serif font, which I feel is nice to look at and is aesthetically pleasing.

This is a sans serif, which I feel is quite eye grabbing with how bold it is

This font is a sans serif font which I feel is unique and out there meaning that

 it would give the magazine a very unique brand  

This font is similar to the 2nd one and is bold and stands out but has a faded style to it which I believe would make it quite unique in nature and would lend it self nicely to a music magazine like all of these fonts. 

Research: Content pages acoustic 3

This is the contents page for the music magazine " acoustic" from the  winter issue 2013.

Puffs
The puffs in the magazine are located at the bottom of the photos, these are page numbers they follow the theory of Blumler and katz and support it as straight away if the image attracts a persons attention they can see where to turn.

Page numbers like this used to break convention as page numbers used to be at the side of the article's description in a column of text. However now having the page numbers blended into the photograph have become an accepted convention in magazine contents pages.


The photos of the magazine 
The photos in the contents page fit the genre  and follow convention. Most music magazine features photos of the artist posed in a a particular way to emphasise a certain point about the artist, for example having Lily Allen posed to show how she angry by having her smash something.
In a technical equipment however we are not drawing focus to the artist, instead we are drawing focus to the tools of the artist their instruments. We still do get articles written about the artist however.

In the photos for the contents page, the instrument has the main focus for the contents page. This is  done by having the instrument in the foreground of the photo and taking up the majority of the space.One way to create a interesting shot here would be to have the camera focus on the instrument and blur the background.The instruments  also are posed  in a dynamic fashion with an interesting background to draw attention to the guitar.


Theory
Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze may also be applied to  the cover. One way it can be applied to the cover is through the male models on the cover and the front cover model Gabrielle Aplin, they are both  placed in a certain way to show off their talent and how soul full they are to at the end attract female & male attention as people are attracted to that kind of thing in people.

The other way that Mulvey can be applied is to attract musician's to the guitars, in what i call the " Musician's gaze" as to put it simply Mulvey is all about attraction and enticing people to buy something such as a magazine for example. The guitars are posed to attract people with an interest, thus Mulvey is applied.






How this has affected my creativity & idea's
This has affected my creativity and idea's as this has given me an idea on what I need to look at when producing my contents page for my magazine, it has also given me ideas for possible shots i can take when it comes to photography as well as the poses I could try.

Research: Front cover acoustic 5

This is the front cover for the magazine Acoustic from the winter of 2013.

Masthead








The mast head for this issue of Acoustic is always the same and features the same iconic sans serif font each time, thus giving the magazine a recognisable brand that can be easily spotted on a rack as well as creating synergy.

This mast head breaks convention as normally the front cover's masthead stands out on the page and has nothing in the background, this magazine issue does not follow this pattern!


Puffs


This issue made very good use out of puffs, this proved to be particular good as just from a glance at the front cover you could tell what had been featured in this issue, and what particular guitars had been reviewed. This is the job of a puff and is done very well by whom ever put this issue together.

The location off the puff is also done very well as it draws the reader's eyes to the bright orange of the guitar as it is otherwise surrounded by the dark mahogany of the main features guitar!.

The other articles featured 
The other articles featured in this issue are presented in the forms off puffs at the bottom of the page. This breaks convention as normally the other advertised articles are on the side of the page but by having them underneath and advertised in a puff format are that it makes the front cover have a very relaxed look to it and such allows it to have focus on the model as the cover is not littered.

 It also allows the magazine's cover to focus more on the model than on the writing that's on the cover such as other articles. It gives it a very redefined and clean look which is very aesthetically pleasing.

The font
The font of the magazine is a mixture between sans serif fonts's and serif fonts. This is good as they provide a good contrast between each other such as the serif font makes the mast head look pleasing to the human eye and in a way represents the genre of music " Acoustic". While the sans serif font is eye grabbing and draws the audience's attention to what the DPS may be about in this case " Gabrielle Aplin" you tube star.

Planning: A rough idea for my music magazine

My favourite part of my magazine's rough idea, is that I believe my magazine's DPS will appeal to a wider audience as most people do wish to learn an instrument!

Research: David Morley

David Morley undertook a study in 1980 to learn how different target audiences received the same text. He looked at how different audiences received an edition of Nationwide, which was a local news programme shown after the main evening news on BBC one. He found that there tended to be three groups of readings of the text.

• A Preferred reading is the reading that is most likely to be received by the target audience of the media text. This preferred reading is the reading  which the media producers want the audience to receive. 

• An oppositional  reading is a reading by the the audience members who are not apart of the target audience . They reject the preferred reading, receiving  an alternative meaning from the text .

• A negotiated reading is one where the audience accepts the meaning the media producers wanted their text to be received but modifies the way it reads the text to suit its own position.

Research contents page: Classical magazine 2

This is a contents page for a classical music  magazine featuring Patricia Kopatchinskaja on the front cover.

House style

The contents page matches the front cover as it keeps Classical's  signature refined yet classy look through out the page. The main cover itself is layed out very neatly with a focus on it looking aesthetically pleasing which translates over to the single paged contents page nicely. The rarity of a single paged contents page goes against convention as most commonly now is a double page spread for the contents.

The font 

The magazines font is a  serif font which is ideal for a magazine with a focus on classical music, as a serif font looks classy so represents the genre of classical music nicely. The serif font is also carried on throughout the issue as the subheadings of the contents page are also in serif and in bold this makes them eye grabbing and pleasing to look at for a long time.






The photo's

The photos taken for the articles for a classical magazine will tend to be in a studio shot format as the genre has more of a focus on large events like concerts rather than an individual like how Q magazine may have a focus Lily Allen for example. Another reason why they might be taken in a studio shot format is because they are taken during an event rather that at a secluded photo shoot.

Page numbers 

The page numbers on the contents page are placed into the images but made transparent as to not hide the image, this gives it a very pleasing look to the eye and carries on the theme of classical music as it is very classy in look and blends well with the genre.

Puffs 

Puffs are colourful shapes promoting features inside of a magazine, these are used in this content's page to show the diffrent sections of the magazine at a glance to the reader. This has the affect on the reader of informing them straight away where the articles are found in the issue and what catorgery they fall under.

Codes and conventions

This contents page does follow the convention of having the main advertised articles having the largest photos on the content's page, in the issue that is Patricia Kopatchinskaja the violinist, it also breaks convention as the contents is a single page instead of the widely accepted convention of having it as two double pages.

Theorist

The only theorist that we can apply to this contents page is that of Richard Dyer " A star is not a real person, they're an image" as this contents page does apply to that as a conductor would not always walk around in in a suit they would wear street clothes showing how the magazine is giving the person this image instead of having it themselves.

How this has influenced me 

This has influenced my creativity and ideas for my magazine contents page as it has showed me a very aestheticlly pleasing layout and idea for font and a colour scheme as well as some codes and conventions that i should be aware of for when i create my contents page of my music magazine such as a image on the contents page of the cover model.

Research: Word cloud of magazine features

Research contents page: Q magazine 1

This is a contents page for 1 magazine featuring Lily Allen on the front cover.

House style

The contents page matches the front cover as it keeps Q's signature Q through out the page as it can be spotted on Ricky gervais's book, The mast head of the contents page and in the Q review column. It also matches the front cover as the front cover had a very dark theme dependent on the colour black which has been reflected into the contents page with the contrast between the red q and black masthead background as well as Ricky Gervais and Lily Allens black clothing.


The font 

The magazines font is  sans serif font which is ideal for a magazine with short pages such as articles and reviews, as it is suggested that looking at a sans serif font for prolonged periods of time can be tiring on the eyes. A sans serif font is also quite bold and eye grabbing which lends itself perfectly for sub headings such as whats on a contents page as it lets you instantly know what is on that page. However there is one exception for this particular contents page where it is not in a sans serif font, its for the Q review section that has the tag line " The worlds finest music guide " which plays of the idea of class and such as a fancy serif font to represent this idea.

The photo's

The photo on the front cover is of Lily Allen but how come when we get to the contents page the main image is of comedian ricky gervais?. This is because Lily allen got the front cover so we we get to the contents page they prioritise advertising their second main article . Which is about Ricky Gervais to pull in more of an audience instead of just Lily Allen fans.                                                                                                                                           There are also 12 images on the contents page as it makes it more attractive to potential readers as straight away they can see if they have an intrest in the article or not. A photo in a contents page does serve the purpose of giving a visual summery of the article.

Puffs 

Puffs are colourful shapes promoting features inside of a magazine, these are used in the section where it shows off the page numbers , this has the affect on the reader of informing them straight away of where they could find the article their interested in instead of flicking through the entire magazine searching for it.

Codes and conventions

This contents page does follow the convention of having the main advertised articles having the largest photos on the content's page, in this issue it is Ricky Gervais and Lily Allen. Another such convention that is used on this contents page is having a credit on the side for the photographer and the person who put the cover toghther. The final convention i can spot on this contents page is having an image to the front cover similar on the contents page this serves the purpose to remind people what the main issue is.

Theorist

In the contents page Laura Mulvey can be slightly applied to the image of Lily Allen, as she is looking sensually at the camera from over her shoulder. The other Theorist that can be applied is Richard Dyer " A star is an image, Not a real person" this is applied to ricky Gervais as he does not always go around dressed up in priests robes it is purely for the sake of the shoot.

How this has influenced me 

This has influenced my creativity and ideas for my magazine contents page as it has showed me a very aestheticlly pleasing layout, as well as some codes and conventions that i should be aware of for when i create my contents page.

Research: Masthead's

Mastheads from Jshepherd1460

Research: A prezie into genre and representation theory

http://prezi.com/7k7oswpdxupi/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Research: front cover Acoustic 4

 

This cover is for Sea Sick Steve, a popular folk and acoustic artistic!

MASTHEAD

This magazine breaks convention and as the masthead in the background with the model's head in front of it. It does this  for a business stand point as when they are on a rack ,you only see the masthead so they have the models head overlapping so people know what the issue is about and then are tempted to buy it.

The masthead also has no kerning which means that there is no space between the letters.

THE LURE 

This issue has a lure which is " The Glastonbury Issue 2013" this is an effective sell line as it advertises the festival to any people who may have been so they can find out what their favorite artist though of the whole event or to people who wished to have gone and find out how it went.

MAIN COVER LINE

The main cover line serves the purpose of refer to the main article, this does that job well but also matches the same font as the other advertised main article this allows us to tell that these are the main features of the issue above other articles advertised on the front cover.


FONT

The font is a sans serif font ,which makes it quite blocky and eye grabbing compared to say a sans serif font which is more aestheticly pleasing. In the conventional sense a serif font is most commonly used in a rock magazine or similar music, while a sans serif font is most commonly used conventionally for a classical magazine.


REPRESENTATION THEORIST 
This cover makes use of the theory of Richard Dyer " A star is an image, not a real person" in the case this image is proven to be false to dyer's theory  as Sea Sick Steve is always presented in this way not just for the sake of a magazine like lily allen.

Research: breaking down a magazine - mojo radiohead

 This is a grid we used to breakdown a magazine cover, I feel that the format of the grid really did help me break this down and make the process of analysing a magazine cover easier to understand!

Research: front cover Q 3

A cover we analysed in class, also making use of representation theory!